by Sam Cheever
I hadn’t even had a chance to use them when Crisanne had attacked me. They’d been useless. Like me.
I reached for the longest knife, my fingers wrapping around its ebony hilt, and closed my eyes at its cool weight in my hand. It was fitting that I’d use the tools of my old life to put an end to the travesty that was my new one.
I lifted the knife and rested the razor-sharp blade against my throat, taking a deep, bracing breath, and then tightened my fingers against the hilt, murmuring, “To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you.” I pressed the blade into my throat, gasping at the bright, sharp pain of it slicing into my flesh, and started to drag it across my skin.
The air behind me pulsed and a large golden hand wrapped around my wrist, stopping me. A muscular arm dragged me up hard against a broad chest, and a strange scent enfolded me. The heat of healing power flowed over and through me, taking away the sting at my throat.
I sobbed at the frustration of being denied my heroic end and turned. My sobs quickly died as I looked into a beautiful square-jawed face with blue eyes, kiss-me lips and a halo of thick, straight white-blond hair. “Who are you?”
His smile brought the first wave of warmth to my belly since Crisanne had pulled away my magic. “Hello, Astra. My name’s Aubrey.”
“He’s your new guardian.”
I jerked around at the sound of my aunt Myra’s voice and had a déjà vu moment. She and Darma were standing a few feet away, glaring at me. Just as if in my dream.
“I don’t need a new guardian.”
There was general hilarity over this ridiculous statement and then I clarified. “I mean…I’m human now. Nobody’s gonna even look at me twice. I’m safe.”
Aubrey frowned down at me. I noticed he hadn’t removed his large, very warm hands from my person yet so I stepped away, doing it for him. “Astra, until we know exactly what’s going on, I’m going to stay very close in case you need me.”
“Aubrey’s one of our finest guardians. He has five stars and he’s won the Guardian Games six years in a row.” Myra’s pretty blue eyes had a few stars of their own when she looked at him.
And you want to make him your bitch, I added silently.
Guardians were ranked according to their strength and power. Myra, my first guardian, was a five. Flick had been a three, because at that point I think the Big Him had given up trying to actually protect me and had given me Flick as kind of a weak, deflection device. Unfortunately, Flick inexplicably discovered he was male after five hundred years of existing in kind of a gender non-specific fog, leaving me once again guardian-less.
I’d been okay with that. Mostly my guardians have just created obligation and clutter in my life. But I now realized I could have avoided my current predicament if I’d had one.
“You are not safe, Astra!” Darma added in her usual loving, screechified tones. “Don’t be so stupid.” Her glare deepened and she strode toward me, looking as if she would strike.
Aubrey stepped between us and I peered around his broad shoulder to see Darma’s reaction.
She stopped, her blue eyes lifting to my new guardian’s, and her mouth came open. “What are you doing?”
“My job.”
“But she’s my sister.”
“And you are not allowed to strike her. She is in a weakened state.”
Okay, now that just pissed me off. I stepped around Aubrey. “Look. All of you. I’m fine.”
“Yeah,” Auntie agreed, nodding. “You looked just fine with that knife at your throat.”
Okay, she had me there. “Okay, you’re right. I had a moment of stupidity.”
Darma snorted. “A moment? That’s rich. Try twenty-five years.”
Glaring at my older sister, I said to Aubrey. “Here’s the deal. I’ll concede that I should have been better about not ditching my guardians…”
Myra lifted a finely sculpted golden eyebrow. I figure she’d have killed to have me admit that a couple of years earlier, when she’d been my guardian.
“But I’ve learned my lesson. Albeit too late.” I sighed. “You can protect me until we know for sure that my powers are gone.”
“I will protect you until I am told otherwise.”
I glared up at him and he stared down at me, impassive, immovable, like a really good-looking rock wall.
This one would be harder to manage than Flick. He might even be harder to manage than Myra.
“You’re wasting your time. I can feel that my magic is gone.”
Aubrey’s face softened and he reached a finger to touch my jawline. “Do you actually believe that your only worth is in your magic, Astra?” The question was spoken so softly, with such feeling behind it, that it brought tears to my eyes.
I blinked them away and sniffed. As of that moment I was done with sniffling. I was going to save Dialle from Crisanne. After that…I didn’t know.
But I knew I was done sitting on my ass feeling sorry for myself.
I looked at Darma. “Get Slayer, and anybody else you can round up. Meet me at my office.”
Her blue eyes widened in surprise, but she smiled. “Why?”
“We’re going after that black-haired bitch. If Dialle can’t have me at his side, we’ll find him somebody suitable. But I’m not letting him get saddled with that evil troll.”
Darma nodded and disappeared with a pop. I blinked in surprise. Apparently my previously magic-phobic sister was getting better with her magics.
“I’m coming with you.” Myra took a step closer, frowning as if she thought I’d refuse her.
She had no reason to be concerned. For once I was happy to have her along. “Thanks, Auntie.” I lifted an arm and looked at Aubrey. “Shift us to my office, please. I need to recruit a couple of werewolves to help us.”
Aubrey nodded. “Yes. But first, you have someone you need to see. I’ll be back later.” He glanced toward the door and he and Myra popped away.
The wide double doors of Dialle’s quarters opened and Dialle stepped through. The look on his face made me gasp. He looked tired, with dark circles under his beautiful eyes, and he walked with a weary step. But when he saw me standing in the middle of the room, still holding my knife, his eyes widened.
The air before me shimmered and he was suddenly there, a mere breath away. “Astra!” His lips feathered across my forehead, my cheeks, along my jawline and then finally landed on my parted lips.
As soon as we kissed, warmth slid through my body and sexual need coiled in my belly, tightening my thighs. The need I felt at his touch was nothing like my Settling, which had been overwhelming, a force to be reckoned with, but somehow outside of us…not part of the magic that was Dialle and me.
This was a tender fire burning low in my belly. The flames of which grew with each passing second as his heated touch skimmed across my back and over the round contours of my buttocks.
My fingers opened and the knife hit the floor with a muffled thump. My hands lifted to tangle in the heavy black silk of his hair.
Dialle groaned against my lips. “I’ve missed you, my love. I’ve been so worried.”
I shook my head as tears flowed down my cheeks. Pulling his head toward me, I deepened the kiss, unwilling to let him get away for at least a few more precious moments. My hand slid beneath the thick sweater he’d donned for his visit to the Shadows and skimmed upward, savoring the smooth heat of his long back.
Dialle’s fingers delved between my butt cheeks, skimming downward toward the place I pulsed for him.
As his hot fingers slid inside my dripping pussy, I cried out and widened my stance so he could penetrate me with his long, elegant fingers.
But Dialle had other ideas. He scooped me up and carried me to the bed, laying me down gently.
With a single thought, Dialle removed our clothing and my hungry gaze slipped over him, consuming the hard lines of his smooth, broad chest, the narrowing at his waistline and the place where his hips melded into long, leanly muscular legs.
&nbs
p; My visual journey stopped on the thick, hard length of cock bobbing hungrily before me and I sat up, reaching for him. I enfolded the rigid shaft in my hand.
He sighed and his head fell back as I caressed him. I lowered my mouth over the thick head, savoring the sweet, salty taste of him on my tongue. I sucked him deep, licking and nipping and worshiping the beautiful column.
His hands found my face, caressing, and he moaned as my fingers enfolded the taut sac beneath his cock.
My skin burned, my pussy cried for more. The walls of my channel throbbed and pulsed hopefully. It felt as if we hadn’t made love in months and I was suddenly impatient for the feel of him deep inside my body.
Dialle reached down with a growl and pulled my hands away, pushing me back and dropping to his knees between my legs. He grabbed my hips and pulled my pussy closer, bending over it and covering the throbbing mons with wet heat.
At the first tug of his lips on my hungry sex I screamed out, pleasure plowing relentlessly through me. My toes curled, my hands fisted in his hair and my legs widened, urging him on.
Dialle sucked on the slick folds of my pussy until I screamed into orgasm four more times and then slipped his tongue along the wet crevice and nibbled gently on my clit. I rolled over into release again, screaming his name into the room.
He stood and climbed my body, kissing his way along my belly, my heaving ribs, and bathing each nipple in moist ecstasy.
I wrapped my calves around his thighs, arching toward him in mindless need, and he finally complied by driving his hot, hard length deep inside me.
My channel convulsed around him, welcoming him and begging him for more. Dialle happily complied, settling into an eager rhythm that pounded me hard and fast into the soft mattress, our bodies moving across the bed with every thrust.
I held on and let the pleasure roll through me, embracing the feeling of his heated skin sliding against mine and reveling in the scrape of hard flesh against raw, hungry skin. When his lips found mine again in a ravenous kiss, I gave him back the same intensity, my tongue dancing eagerly with his.
Making love to Dialle without magic was different. His taste was familiar, yet not. I recognized the feel of his sweat-slickened skin against mine, yet it had a novel feeling to it, exciting and new.
It was as if we were old souls discovering each other in a totally new environment.
When my body rolled over the sharp edge of release once again, it was so bright, so shiny and so new that it brought tears to my eyes.
This was no magic-induced mating. It was not power-generated lust. What Dialle and I shared in that bed was pure animal magnetism. It was hearts and minds and physical bodies sharing a unique lust, driven by a common need.
Most of all, as Dialle screamed out my name and buried his seed deep within my body, I knew he did it not because it made his kingdom whole. He made love to me because he needed to…wanted to…craved it in that elemental way mankind had been aspiring to since the beginning of time.
And when we collapsed in each other’s arms, I knew that, wherever our futures took us…whatever the result of my new deformity…what Dialle and I had shared was real.
I would never doubt that again.
Chapter Fifteen
Tree House in the Shadows
Flick and Merriam sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g,
Too bad they’re about to feel the Shadows’ sting!
I was sliding my knives into my boots when Aubrey returned. I looked up and gave him a smile. “Thanks for giving me time to say goodbye.”
Aubrey frowned but said nothing. He crossed his hands before him and waited as I finished arming myself.
My hands were slow and clumsy. Without my magic I felt clunky, as if I didn’t belong in my own skin. In addition to the physical issues, I was fighting guilt for what I was about to do. I’d promised Dialle I’d stay there, safe in the court.
But I knew I had to do what I was about to do. I was doing it for him. I probably wouldn’t survive it, but it had to be done nonetheless. I knew if Dialle got a whiff of it he’d try to stop me.
I couldn’t risk his finding out. Deep down inside I was worried that Dialle wouldn’t survive a face-off with Crisanne.
I knew he was an extremely powerful devil. The most powerful of his kind. By all rights he should be able to best her easily. But I’d felt her terrible power. I was terrified that she would do to him what she’d done to me.
He wouldn’t survive losing his magic.
I barely had. In fact, I still wasn’t sure I would. But for the moment I had something to do that was more important than curling up in the fetal position and willing myself dead.
Grabbing one of the smaller swords from Dialle’s rack on the wall, I dropped the sword into a sheath I’d strapped across my back and glanced at Aubrey. “I’m ready.”
He lifted a hand toward me and I placed mine on his. As we entered the sphere of stillness, I mused that I would no longer be space shifting myself from place to place. I would once again be dependent on others to do it for me, as I’d been early in my magic-building days.
It was one of the things I would miss least about my magic. Thinking about the time I’d shifted into a nasty worm-headed demon, I did an internal shudder. I’d never been very good at it.
It was then that I realized I had once functioned quite well without magic. Before I met Dialle I hadn’t even known I could do the stuff I later learned to do. I had depended instead on my wits, my speed and agility, and my skill with knife and sword.
While I suspected my untapped powers had given my physical skills an edge, I could get back to that place again. I could still slay demons.
I just couldn’t be queen of the Royal Court of Dialle the Second. The thought nearly broke my heart.
We landed in my office and I was surprised to see that it was very full. Darma had done a fine job of pulling together the people I’d worked with in the past and trusted.
Ralph and Bob were there. I gave them each a smile and they pulled me into a hug.
“We’ve got your back, Astra,” Bob told me.
Ralph touched my cheek with a slightly calloused finger and added, “Not just now, but later, when you come back to work.”
Tears threatened so I looked down, struggling to hold my emotions in check. “Thanks, guys.”
I looked up at the sound of a throat clearing. Standing before me was the massive form of Captain Lee, a seven-foot-tall Venusian with triangular yellow eyes and thick white hair. He grinned at me. “You look like trouble.”
I laughed, the tears I’d been trying to hold back sliding from my eyes. It was one of the first things he’d ever said to me. “Ask Dr. Lee about Astra Q. Phelps, she’ll tell you I’m okay.”
He enclosed me in a massive hug.
A long-fingered hand touched my shoulder. Dr. Clovis Lee stood next to her soul mate, her triangular yellow-gold eyes filled with emotion. “I’ve already told him you’re going to be fine. He just wanted to see for himself.”
I extricated myself from the big bear of a man and hugged his slim mate. At six and a half feet, she towered over me too.
I’d worked side by side with the Venutian couple and several of their soldiers when Satan’s magic veil had been poisoning the Earth. It had been a violent and dangerous time, but I’d been happy to have them fighting alongside me. Nothing beat a Venutian soldier for intelligence or brutality.
Apparently loyalty was also one of their strengths.
“I’m really glad to see you and your men, Captain.” I nodded toward several extremely tall men dressed in ugly brown uniforms standing against the back wall. They were armed with knives of all sizes on crisscrossing straps that wound around their torsos, legs and arms. “But, I don’t want to put you into any danger…”
Clovis Lee placed a long finger over my lips. “Nonsense. Just tell us what we need to do.”
I realized her powers would be especially useful. “The Tweener we’re going up against is incred
ibly powerful. What she did to me…” My voice broke and I cleared my throat.
Clovis nodded. “I can tell you what she’s thinking before she even knows she’s thinking it. Then Captain Lee will hold her while you kick her ass.” She grinned at me until I laughed.
“You’ve been hanging around me too long,” I told her.
There were several others in the room whom I didn’t recognize. I nodded at them and thanked them for coming to help.
The air in the office shimmered and Myra appeared, along with Flick and a large black-haired woman dressed head to toe in black leather. She towered over Flick and her shoulders were broader than his. Her face was round with high cheekbones, a broad forehead and wide, deep-red lips.
She wore a rapier strapped at her hip and had several platinum knives sheathed in a wide brown belt.
She narrowed aquamarine-colored eyes on me and stepped forward, offering me a hand that rivaled Captain Lee’s for its size. “I’m Merriam. Nice to finally meetcha.” She had a tattoo of a dancing angel on one nicely toned biceps.
I blinked. “Um…hey, Merriam.”
Flick had turned bright red and was fidgeting all over the place. His obvious discomfort told me exactly who Merriam was. “You’re Flick’s girlfriend?”
She smiled and it completely transformed her wide face. “Yes.”
Well frunk me to Hades and back again. “It’s very nice to finally meet you too. Flick’s told me so much about you.” I lifted an eyebrow at my ex-guardian and he looked as if he might pass out and hit the floor.
“Shall we get started?” Myra asked. She glared at me. She knew I was dying to tease Flick. Unfortunately, even I recognized we didn’t have time for that.
There’d be plenty of time for teasing later if I survived.
The air beside me shimmered and Slayer appeared. His handsome face was missing its usual good-natured smile. His golden eyes were hard as glass and filled with rage. He looked deadly.
