From Ashes and Embers (Ceasefire Series Book 3)

by Claire Marta

  We’re locked as one. United in the most intimate way.

  Moving her hips, she works me like a pro. She’s in no hurry. Drawing out her mission riding me, her inner muscles grip my cock.

  With my hands chained above my head, I’m at her mercy. A body to take enjoyment from. A prisoner.

  Grinding herself on a downward push, her hands caress up her naked torso to cup her perfect breasts.

  Gaze latching onto the dusky nipples, I hunger for a taste of them. Fucking tease.

  Thrusting my hips up, I meet her half way this time. Balls deep, I urge her into a faster pace.

  It’s insanity. Wrong, yet somehow so right.

  A twisted game of survival. We’re at war with each other. Both of us trying to force the other over the edge into a climatic release.

  It’s a blur how many times we’ve done this. Jane coaxing me into a sexual frenzy. A mindless marionette desperate to have her. Days. Weeks. Month. I’m not sure I really care when we’re like this together. She’s going to be the death of me.

  Eyes screwed shut, she still refuses to acknowledge me. Denies me the emotions I know she can’t hide.

  If she won’t, then I’ll make damn sure she feels me. Every fucking hard inch. She might be on top but that doesn’t mean she’s completely in control.

  I descend into the madness.

  Writhing, straining, our bodies find a fevered wild rhythm fuelled by anger, pain, and sweet misery.

  Jane fucks me like she hates me.

  Maybe she does.

  They’ll be nothing but ashes by the time she’s done with me.

  I should hate her back, but I can’t.

  I’ve always loved to play with fire. Watch the flames between us get higher. This dark passion burn us both up.

  Gritting my teeth, I give her all that I have pumping up into her with all I am worth.

  Pinching her nipples, Jane’s speed increases.

  Fuck, she’s beautiful. Skin flushes with sexual exertion, the length of her multi-colored hair ripples around her pale shoulders. Lips parted and trembling, the freckles scattered across her nose are stark and visible.

  I want her begging for mercy. Have her tied up and beneath me as I master her body and pleasure.

  Tugging on my bonds, I curse under my breath. It’s so fucking hard not being able to touch her. To grasp the globes of her arse cheeks and hammer into her fast and free.

  Abandoning her breasts, her hands move, transferring to my lower legs as she leans back. In this position she finds her balance to drive my cock deeper inside her core.

  It’s my undoing.

  I feel my seed gather in my balls.

  Bouncing frantically, her pussy walls quiver and convulse with an impending orgasm around my shaft.

  “Yes!” Screams echoing around the cell, she stiffens above me.

  It’s all the encouragement I need. I cum so hard black spots dance before my eyes, my groan of satisfaction filling the room as she milks me for all I’m worth.

  When reality comes filtering back, I discover the woman I love limp over me.

  Taught nipples rub against my chest. Face pressed against my jawline, her soft pants warm my skin. Her weight over me feels comfortable. Something I’m already used to. When she’s not there it feels all wrong. As if part of me is missing.

  Twisting my head, I plant a kiss on her cheek. I wish I could do more. Kept chained like an animal, I’ve been beaten, degraded, my long hair sheared off. Everything inside me aches to hold her. Give her comfort.

  Jane freezes at the gesture.

  “Talk to me, sweetheart. Please. I need to hear your voice,” I plead gruffly.

  “Your Master tried to rape me. He burned me, when he attempted to kill me at the same time. You promised to protect me. Was that a lie? Did you find that fun? Did you plan that together?” I can hear the hurt and pain in her voice.

  “No. Fuck no. I thought he’d turned you to ashes. When I heard you screaming, I couldn’t get to the room faster enough to stop him, but it was already too late.” The image is forever burned into my brain along with the feeling of desolation.

  “My Guardians summoned me home before he could fulfil what he was trying to do,” Her confession is a whisper. “Their magic saved me.”

  “He let me believe he’d fucked and murdered you. I had no clue you were still alive. If I’d had, I would have looked for you, Jane. You have to believe me. I wouldn’t have abandoned you. Not ever.”

  “Liar.”

  “I swear to you that’s the truth. I gave you my oath that I would protect you, and I was going to uphold it.”

  “But you didn’t.” Her eyes bore into mine with a mix of emotions.

  They all bring a lump to my throat. All this time and the Devil was playing me. The mother fucker has a lot to answer for. Why didn’t he tell me? I know he likes his games but shit.

  “Your purpose here is to impregnate me.”

  I barely hear her murmur.

  Confusion washes through me. “impregnate?”

  Tink drops my gaze, a look of guilt taking over her expression. “My sole responsibility is to bare the next heir to the throne.”

  “Honey, you’re not making any sense,” I utter back, apprehension coiling inside me, sensing somehow I’m about to hate her next words.

  “I’m next in line to rule the Underworld. Hades is my great-grandfather.”

  Hades realm.

  The Greek God who governed their version of Hell. Powers eroded over time as he’s no longer worshipped by mortals, he’s still a formidable opponent.

  Jane is related to him?

  For a second, I’m lost for words. Her secrets are more than deadly. Hades has never had any love of Hell and its Master. Things between both realms have always been on thin ice. Lucifer has coveted his Kingdom for centuries. Another one he’s always planned to take as his own.

  “You’re not a Fae,” I reply dumbly. No of course she’s not.

  She shakes her head fractionally, still refusing to meet my eyes. “Not completely. My father was Fae; my Mother was a demi-goddess.”

  That explains a lot. Her destructive powers. How she healed so quickly. I haven’t forgotten the devastation she wreaked at the demon titty bar.

  “As far as I’m aware, Hades is still breathing. Mad as fuck, yes, but still breathing. Blood relative or not, I don’t think he’s going to let you waltz in and take over unless this is his plan,” I point out. I still don’t understand this fucked up situation. My part to play in this sordid little game.

  Tink rocks her hips nervously making me groan as my cock, still half hard, throbs inside her. “The Kingdom is crumbling. My great-grandfather is riddled with madness. I was trying to save my home. No, he doesn’t know about it.”

  “When he finds out…”

  “He won’t.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because he acts like I don’t exist.” She flicks an anxious glance at the door to the cell. “My parents were murdered by mercenaries. Thugs paid by his enemies to kill off his bloodline. The furies managed to save me just in time. Instead of being taken to him, he left me to be raised by them in secret. Not once has he ever come to visit me. I’m a disappointment. All I get are verbal messages passed to me by them.”

  I ask the question that’s been burning a hole on my tongue since I woke up a captive. “Why me?”

  “Your connection to Lucifer.”

  “As his second in Command?”

  Tink’s little hands clench on my chest, her nails dragging over my skin. “No, we thought you were his son. His bloodline combined with mine would create a being worthy of the throne.”

  Shock rendered me speechless as my heart slams into my chest.

  It stings; she just seduced me to get knocked up. I’ve barely been functioning since I thought she was dead. Mourned her and all she’s been after was my sperm.

  I keep emotions from my expression before they can betray what I’m feeling
. “Tink, the Devil isn’t my father,” I inform her, voice low and thick.

  “I know that now, you idiot.”

  “Then why are you still trying to get me to knock you up?”

  Her eyes round with fear. “If the Furies…my guardians, find out you’re not who we think you are they’ll kill us both.”

  She’s trying to protect me. After believing I’d betrayed her, she’s still trying to keep me from harm. If I mean nothing to her, then why would she do that?

  Hope uncurls in my heart. “Jane.”

  Scrambling off my lap she slides clear of the table. “I have to go.”

  “Unchain me.”

  Gathering her crumpled robe from the stone floor, she doesn’t even spare me a look. “I can’t.”

  Shock courses through me at her actions. Yanking on the chains that bind me, I struggle fruitlessly to get free. “You can’t just leave me here to be cut open by those blood thirsty bitches.”

  Without looking back, the thin material clutched protectively to her bare breasts, she hurries toward the door. “They won’t touch you like that again, not until your task is complete.”

  Her assurance does little to improve my mood. I’m done with being a fuck toy.

  “Tink!” My bellow of frustration is met with the slam of the metal cell door.

  Chapter Thirty

  Jane

  I’ve become nothing but a receptacle for Raziel’s cum, yet if my guardians find out he’s not the Devil’s son, he’s as good as dead.

  We both are.

  Pulling my robe more securely around me, I hurry down the corridor. The sweet ache between my legs and the stickiness of my lover’s seed leaves me tingling with bliss. There’s something heady about having him at my mercy. Mine to pleasure and tease. Over a week now, and I’m constantly finding new ways to bring him over the edge. I’ve never felt so feminine and powerful. It should feel perverted and depraved, but it doesn’t. The resolve I have always known and trusted in is no longer dependable. Everything I was taught is nothing compared to the yawning longing. This Nephilim has become the center of my world. When I’m in his presence, the aching for a future that I can never have lessens. He’s my anchor, preventing me from being lost. Obeying my orders so far has kept him safe. This can’t go on forever. I am more than aware of that fact. When I don’t fall pregnant, they’ll know something is wrong.

  Arianna is already getting impatient. The sister’s bloodlust hungers to debase and defile him in other ways. Destroy Raziel slither by slither. Extinguishing his will and crushing him down into a mindless puppet. I’ve seen them do it before. There have been plenty of unwitting beings who have wandered into their domain. Once their prey is malleable, they feast on their flesh. I’ve never been able stomach watching them, although they’ve forced me in the past, when I was younger, to be present during their feeding. Male flesh, they prize above all. Virile, potent, it suppresses the ravages of age granting them eternal youth.

  “We’ll take his eyes. Blind him.” Arianna’s voice echoes out of the kitchen. Padding into the spacious room, I find the women hunched over the long wooden table. Knifes, cleavers, and other butchering equipment are strewn across the surface. The gleaming metal makes my stomach clench in anxiety. The long carved out cavern is lit with glowing white orbs for light. A natural spring cascades flowing through chiselled rocks into a pool. In another corner, a large iron pot hangs above a fire place, the tunnelled-out chimney shaft leading up to the outside world and providing some fresh air. Dried herbs hang from a beam and animal traps lay on a wooden work surface ready for distributing.

  “I thought you were going to leave him alone until I conceive,” I point out moving to join them, making a mental note of everything to be done. The vegetable broth I’ve been spoon feeding Raz still needs to be prepared for tomorrow. It’s not much but enough to keep him healthy. Sponging his body in warm water and soap to keep his healing wounds clean, I’ve taken to performing every other day. The stubble on his jaw has grown into a beard, and that will need shaving soon. I hate the fact they’ve cut off all his lovely long brown hair. Seeing him with it short doesn’t make him any less attractive, but it was done out of degradation.

  Taina, the youngest of the three sisters, wears a grin of pure evil. “That might take time. You don’t need all of him for that anyway, and we’re getting hungry.” Naked from the waist up, none of them seem to feel the cold in the air.

  Arianna the eldest has always been the leader and the brains. Taina’s talents lay in making their preys suffering prolonged and lingering. Calista the middle sister is quieter than her siblings. Her gift for poisons and potions more extensive.

  “You have that other male.” Another creature who fell into their trap. Although it makes me sick at the thought, if they amuse themselves with him, Raziel will be safe.

  “With only one pair of eyes. Ours will need replacing soon, the color already fades from our vision.” A milky whiteness is visible around the edges of her lavender irises. Stealing the eyeballs of their victims is done from necessity. They have none of their own. Born blind, they rely on the stolen eyesight, or they’d be forced to remain in the safety of their lair and starve.

  Collecting a knife from the table top, Arianna uses the sharp point to clean mangled pieces of dried flesh from the ends of her claws. “Did you know some female spiders bite the heads of the males once they’re done fucking?”

  The information has my nose wrinkling in disgust. “I’m not biting anything off of Raziel.”

  “Such a pity.”

  Calista spares me a dismissive glare, plaiting the length of her fiery red hair into a braid. “If we remove his arms and legs, we don’t need to guard him so much.”

  “We’ll get started on that in the morning. First, I want his wings as insurance,” Arianna informs her younger sisters. “The potion we’ve been forcing down his throat will keep him weak enough not to fight us.”

  I feel the blood drain from my cheeks so quickly dizziness makes me sway.

  Catching the movement, Arianna gives me a frown. “You’re exhausted and no use to us. Go to bed, Jane. Sleep. You’ll need your strength for the morning.”

  I’m nothing but their prized broodmare. All my plans to keep Raziel from harm and it’s falling apart before my eyes. There’s no way to sway them. I’ve seen this kind of excitement in them before. They won’t stop until they’ve achieved their goal.

  In silence, I watch them troop from the kitchen, the instruments of cruel butchery clutched in their hands. Even if Raz refuses to bare his wings for them freely, they’ll coax them with foul magic from his abused and brutalised back. It doesn’t take long for the screams to start. Pressing my hands to my ears, I try to blot out the sound. The whip might not have broken him but having his wings stripped and slashed might. Paralyzed in place, I remain at the table.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Raziel

  “Lucifer.”

  Silence greets my call.

  Moving restlessly under the weight of my chains, I glare up at the rock ceiling. Pleasure still echoes through my body from deep dicking Jane. I get a rush every time we fuck. She’s my own private sugar supply, and I’m addicted to her pussy. I refuse to lay here while were both in danger.

  “Where are you? You son of a bitch.” I demand, anger roiling and tumbling with bitterness. He’s never had a problem hearing me before. The Devil lied to me. Let me wallow for weeks thinking Jane was dead. I want to know why? Because she escaped his clutches? Why toss me to these twisted creatures that keep her captive? A death sentence at their hands? Is that what he wants? Maybe he hoped Jane would be the one to kill me. Payback for disobeying him. Another layer of his treachery. He’s nothing but a self-serving, power-motivated control freak.

  Door squeaking open my attention is drawn to the three half naked figures trotting past the threshold. Red hair plaited down their backs, I’ve come to despise these beauties.

  “Did you enjoy Jane, Nephil
im?” Arianna smirks. Leader of this family of blood-thirsty psychopaths, her two sisters aren’t any less ruthless.

  Furies.

  Goddesses of vengeance and retribution in the service of Hades.

  My eyes narrow. Memories of a white-haired female stir. One I once fucked. Conversation had been sparse, but still, I remember what she claimed to be, which only heightens my suspicion.

  “Where’s Jane?”

  My demand is met with a laugh. “Resting, now it’s our time to play.”

  Bare breasts swaying, they move toward me seductively. My focus fastens on the weapons in their hands. Dread creeps over me in an icy chill. I’ve been hardened to torture, but I’m not numb to pain. Is Jane pregnant? Her certainty they wouldn’t touch me again hung on the fact.

  Yanking the chain connected to a pulley on my manacles, they hoist me up into the air. Their puppet on a string. Swinging it, they tug until I’m hanging upside down. Greedy hands caress over my muscles. Massaging, fondling, they explore from my toned abs to my hips then onto the firmness of my buttocks.

  “Be a good boy and show us your wings.”

  A delicate hand encases my semi hard erection, making me recoil. “Fuck off and die.”

  Pumping it up and down, she coaxes it to swell harder, the potion they’ve been feeding me giving them influence over my body. “So defiant. Not that it matters. We have ways of making you comply even against your will.” Leaning over me, her tongue snakes out, lapping at the crown, delving along the slit. The action sickens me, but my enslaved dick eagerly thickens further with her ministrations.

  There’s nothing I can do to stop them, but I sure as shit won’t cower. They may use, abuse, and torture me, but I will not breakdown.

  Cold metal brushes my shoulder.

  “You should be familiar with these as you’ve used them to de-horn so many demons in the past.” Arianna’s fingers run over my muscular arm, bringing the shears into my line of view. “I bet you’ve never considered what it feels like.”