She stepped out of her high heels and glanced up at him. His gaze slid along her naked curves as he buttoned his jeans.
Wearing only a hint of a smile, she leaned against the dresser. “Are you gonna answer?”
He traced his thumb along her rough scar and cleared his throat. “We got captured,” he muttered.
Her chest tightened and she paused, struggling to take a breath. “Are you OK?”
Damian kept his gaze on her scar. “A few bruises, nothing bad.”
He was lying. Tears flooded into her eyes without warning. She grasped his T-shirt and drew it upward. Purple and black welts covered his muscled abdomen. Deep cuts crisscrossed his body, swollen and angry-looking.
Swallowing, she forced herself to get a grip on her emotions. A tear spilled down her cheek, and she brushed it away. Because he was immortal, Damian healed quickly, but she hated to see him wounded.
“You said I didn’t have to worry,” she whispered.
“I meant it.”
She drifted closer and buried her face against his shoulder.
Damian wrapped his powerful arms around her. “I will always find a way to make it home to you, baby. You don’t ever have to be afraid of losing me.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Welcome to Hell.” Noah adjusted his collar in front of the mirror in Damian’s living room. “How’d you get roped into going to a fucking fashion auction?”
Damian leaned against his front door, his mouth set in a hard line. This wasn’t about to become a regular thing, but he could make it through one night for Haley.
“At least this one has food.” Noah straightened his tie. “The one next week is at an art gallery. All they’ve got is champagne.”
“Can’t wait.” Damian took a drink of his whiskey and glanced up at the empty staircase.
Noah plopped down into a chair. “Yeah, wait till you’re planning your fucking wedding. Ginger’s thought about everything. All the way down to the napkins. Haley’s probably the same way.”
Damian set his drink down, shaking his head. “She doesn’t care about that shit.”
Noah snorted. “That’s what she’s making you think now. She’s probably hiding wedding spreadsheets like porn on her computer.”
Haley appeared at the top of the stairs, fumbling with her bracelet, and started down the steps. Her dress looked expensive, light mint filmy fabric ran all the way to her ankles with a slit at her thigh. He loved when she wore that kind of shit.
She looked in his direction and faltered on the last step, gazing over his dark gray suit. Her high heels barely tapped the marble as she gravitated toward him. Her tight dress wrapped around her curves, pushing up her perfect tits.
She bit her juicy bottom lip and slid her tiny palm along his tie. Her sweet voice echoed in his head. “I kind of want to get on my knees right now.”
The thought sent a shock of pleasure through his cock, and he moved his hands to her little waist.
Ginger headed down the stairs, saying something to Noah.
Damian clutched the light silk of Haley’s dress, ready to rip it off her. “In front of our friends?”
“Are we taking separate cars?” Noah called to him as he slid on his jacket.
Haley glanced over at Noah. “Yeah.”
Damian caught her chin, then glided his tongue across her lower lip. She tasted like sin, and he needed more. Driving his tongue into her soft mouth, he pulled her closer.
He slid his hand down to her ass, and she stiffened a little in his arms. He forced himself to let go of her.
Blushing, she pressed her gorgeous red lips together. He couldn’t help but stare at them, hungry for her, but he stepped back, shackling his desperate lust.
“See you guys there.” Noah draped his arm across Ginger’s shoulders as he pulled the door open.
Haley turned to the table by the entryway and slipped the folded silver knife he’d given her into a small silk purse. Sexy little soldier, always armed like he taught her. The steel knife was engraved with ancient spells, meant to destroy non-immortal supernatural beings. It provided peace of mind against the monsters who’d imprisoned her in Hell six years ago.
He swept his fingers underneath the tiny strap of her dress and guided her toward the door. She wouldn’t need to fear his uncle much longer, he’d been working with Adam to assemble an attack against Raden.
She lifted her skirt as they headed down the front steps. Her lips curved with a little half-smile. “I’ve never seen you wear a suit before.”
He pulled open the passenger door of his classic 1970 Chevelle, itching to bend her over the hood. “I only have a few. Never really need to wear them.”
“I like it.” Her gaze wandered down his body, and she got into the Chevelle.
His cock pressed against his zipper as he walked to the driver’s side. Fuck, it was gonna be a long night.
It wasn’t long before they’d arrived at the auction. Dinner arrived at their table, eggplant something, and Damian pushed it around with his fork. Another trendy person took the podium and spoke in long, drawn-out sentences about designers and summer fashion lines.
Haley scooted her chair closer to him. “Are you bored to death yet?”
“No.” It was a tremendous lie, but she looked happy.
She glanced down at his plate. “You don’t like it?” Her glittery eyes reflected a playful gleam, and he relaxed his muscles.
“I prefer the food I get at home.”
Smiling, Haley moved her hand to his lap. “I’ll make you one of your favorites for dinner tomorrow.”
He set down his fork, suddenly craving only her delicious pussy. He rubbed his mouth as his heartbeat picked up speed. Taking a deep breath, he resisted the urge to move her innocent hand to his thickening cock.
Instead, he took hold of her palm and massaged her slender fingers. Touching her silky skin sent electricity through his body, heightening his desperation. He ran his fingers along the tender veins in her wrist, and her hand went limp in his grip. Lifting it to his lips, he gently kissed her palm. He lowered it back to his lap, and she dropped her long lashes, her cheeks flushed pink. He leveled his gaze on her steadily heaving breasts.
His heartbeat banged in his chest as he leaned in close to her. “I need to fuck you, angel.”
Her breath caught and she nodded. Grabbing her little purse, she stood up from her chair.
He could hardly keep his thudding cock in his pants as they hurried through a busy foyer. He drew her down a secluded hallway, lined with hanging gold-and-crystal chandeliers.
Pressing her against the wall, he fumbled with her dress. His fingers met with thin lace, and he grunted in frustration, gripping her panties in his fist.
“Someone’s coming,” she whispered and inched her dress down.
Two men approached from the other end of the hall with a steady stride. Damian searched their minds, but both revealed the same thing: echoing chasms of darkness.
Damian shoved her behind him and snatched his knife from his pocket. Shadows crept around him. He spun as a hideous demon appeared from the black fog, right behind Haley.
Her silk purse hit the floor as she flipped open her silver knife and thrust it into the underside of the demon’s chin. The demon vanished into the darkness.
The two men had morphed into their true demonic forms, twisted, deformed bodies and serpent-like flesh. They attacked him from both sides. Damian dodged their blows. He plunged his knife into a demon’s throat as another appeared behind him. He sank his blade into the demon’s face, and it disappeared in the smoke.
A mass of shadow engulfed Haley as a monstrous demon closed his arms around her small frame. She struggled, but she couldn’t free her knife hand.
As she slipped away into the darkness, Damian latched onto it, suddenly they appeared in the familiar lavish surroundings of his uncle Raden’s bed chambers. Black velvet drapes hung along the 30-foot windows in the tall tower. The deep red sky outside cast a dismal glow into the
dark space, lit only by eerie candlelight. They had been dragged to Hell.
“Just in time, nephew.”
Haley stared up at Raden with wide eyes. Long black hair framed his sharp features as he sneered, his black eyes full of hatred. She appeared so tiny beside the giant adversary looming over her.
Demons attacked Damian from every side, and he blocked their weapons. He stabbed into them, slicing through their scaly bodies to get to her, but they overwhelmed him.
Raden took hold of her dress and ripped it open. He tore off her panties, leaving her stark naked.
Damian’s chest tightened. Hardly able to breathe, he pushed forward, fighting the horde of creatures.
Haley gripped her silver knife and swiftly shoved it into Raden’s massive groin. His immortal body would heal in a matter of moments, but he gave a satisfying roar of agony.
His uncle pulled the knife from his bleeding crotch and locked eyes with Damian through the crowd of frantic demons. Then he plunged the blade between Haley’s breasts.
She grabbed the knife as she fell forward.
Desperate, Damian overpowered the monsters and slid in front of her, catching her before she hit the black marble.
He helped her hold her bleeding stomach. “Use your powers, Haley. Heal yourself.”
“I can’t.”
A choking pain struck him. She had been stabbed with her own knife, the enchanted gift he’d given her.
“Hold on, baby.” He shook his head, panicked at how quickly everything had unraveled.
“I love you.” She took a labored breath as the color drained from her face. “I wanted to have your children.”
“No, angel… Hold on.”
The life left her eyes. Her chest did not rise with another breath.
His eyes burned with tears, something he didn’t know his body was capable of producing, and he held her corpse tightly to his chest. “Don’t leave. I’ll fix this.”
But he knew the ancient spells engraved on the knife couldn’t be broken. She was dead. There was no way to fix anything.
Numb, he barely heard his uncle’s bellowing laughter.
“If your father could see you now.”
Gripped with a darkness he couldn’t control, Damian spoke his native language of Trinnian, his voice cracking. “Di arak de’erden.”
Silence fell over the room. A moment later, Raden jolted as the enormous glass window in his chambers shattered, the frame suddenly filled with a mammoth, scaly creature, leering at him with fire brimming in its mouth.
Damian’s dragon was missing a few scales, but it had grown in the many years since he’d seen it. It looked to him for direction as if he were still its Master. The creature had remained loyal to him even in his absence. Damian uttered a command in Trinnian, and the monster began to stalk toward his uncle, awaiting Damian’s next command.
“Lucifer will never allow this, Damian. Spare yourself from his wrath. Call back your dragon.”
A visible shadow of darkness cloaked Damian’s body, emanating from within. “Nn ebbeneit ferrough exey.”
Raden shrieked as the dragon’s fire consumed him. The giant creature held him down and tore his sinewy body into pieces with its piercing teeth.
Carrying her body, Damian climbed on top of the dragon while it feasted. Her eyes, once a vibrant, glittering blue, stared at nothing. He lowered his forehead to her neck, shocked by how cold she already felt.
“I didn’t know you wanted children.” He swallowed through the pain in his throat. “We can still do that. We’ll make you immortal, baby.”
Raden had become a gory puddle on the marble, and the dragon turned to the broken window. It glided forward, flying out of the tall tower with Damian on its back.
Surrounded by dark crimson sky, Damian began to black out, unable to process the crushing agony in his chest. He tightened his hold on her lifeless form and told himself to hold it together. He would bring her back.
He stepped down from his dragon and gave it a nod. The reptile took flight, leaving him standing in the doorway of his childhood home, the dark palace of Hell where his father currently resided. The monsters guarding the doors stepped aside for him, and he carried her bloodied body through the monumental hall.
Lucifer sat on his throne in a vast, empty room, looking down at him with a knowing grin.
“My son has returned.” His voice echoed with a strange sound, oddly high-pitched yet combined with a deep resonating growl. “I see you are exuding my dark power.” He gestured one of his four arms to the black shadow surrounding Damian, similar to the one that followed him wherever he went, making his presence known before he arrived.
“Father.” Damian dropped to his knees and leaned over Haley’s overly pale naked body.
“I knew the witch would bring you back here. The oracles predicted it.”
“Help me,” he whispered. The foreign-feeling tears fell from his eyes again.
“The witch deserved to die, Damian. Our power is to destroy. I cannot create life.”
“You created me.”
“The life inside you is only darkness. You are not capable of the love you have professed to her.”
“Then you can turn back the clock. Give me another chance to save her.”
“It is clear I must explain something to you.” Lucifer’s vibrating vocal chords caused the enormous walls to shake. “The one who carries the golden powers—the queen—has dominion over all other witches. And, long before you were created, I found myself obsessed with her. Your witch’s mother, Grace. She seduced me, letting me hide in her room, letting me touch her while she slept. When she discovered me one night, I took her by force and made her mine in every way. The queen’s powers are alluring, Damian, it’s why Raden sent the bloodlings to murder Grace. It’s also why he chose her daughter to be his personal slave.” He narrowed his snake-like eyes. “It’s why you believe yourself to be in love with her.”
Damian shook his head. “She’s given me countless reasons to love her, father. She belongs with me.”
“Why would I grant you anything? My son, the rightful heir to my throne, has chosen to be a soldier for Adversus, an organization devoted to killing my armies. You have disgraced me.”
“Raden used an enchanted blade.” His heart clenched in his chest. “A blade I gave to her. I can’t…” He closed his eyes.
“And then you proceeded to kill my brother, your own uncle. I must teach you a lesson, Damian. Your behavior cannot be met with mercy. The queen witch shall remain as she is, I suggest you bury her body before the mortem rats catch the scent of her flesh. They do love to devour the dead.”
“Father, please.” Damian pressed his face against her body, unable to find any comfort from her cold breasts. “I need her.”
“I have heard enough.” Lucifer gripped the arms of the throne and showed a smile full of sharp teeth. “We will return to the time before you betrayed me. You will ascend to your rightful place on the throne. You will never join Adversus, and therefore, you’ll never meet the seductive queen witch. Your life with her will not exist. But because of your sacrifice, your witch shall not die at Raden’s hand. Accept the offer, or toss her dead body into the Pit.”
It wasn’t truly a choice. Damian couldn’t go on in the devastating darkness. Saving her was the only option he could live with, and if he never had her, at least he wouldn’t have to experience the pain of losing her. With a heavy heart, he looked his father in the eye. “I’ll take the throne.”
CHAPTER THREE
“Do you plan to kill Marybelle once you become the dark lord, nephew?” Raden leaned back in his chair with his typical smirk. “Perhaps strap her to a torture device for a change?”
The other men seated around the metal table in Raden’s chambers snickered. Everyone in Hell was aware their future leader had spent three of his teenaged years as the prisoner of a witch. It made him look weak. Damian was expected to take his revenge on her when he received the supernatural power
s of the throne, but it was the furthest thing from his mind. It had been seven years since Raden had saved him from her torture table, and he was content to never think about the sick little witch ever again.
“Well? What is the pixie-witch’s fate?”
Damian continued to ignore Raden, grateful when the chamber doors burst open, diverting his uncle’s attention.
“Speaking of filthy witches.” Raden stood up from his chair, glaring at the slave who the guards dragged across the floor by the enchanted collar around her neck. She was a curvy young redhead, her cinnamon hair hanging in long curls that covered her face.
The demon holding her collar bowed his head to Raden. “She tried to escape, Master. Killed two of our guards before we caught her.”
Raden yanked her over to the table and spread her naked body across it, pressing her face against the metal.
Damian’s pulse skyrocketed at the inevitable pain he was about to see inflicted on the pale witch. He didn’t like witches. They were able to dominate him with their powers, a strange chink in his genetic armor. But watching the slaves’ unnecessary suffering was not something he enjoyed either. He shifted in his seat as he found himself gazing at the witch’s beautiful blue eyes, then clenched his hands into fists.
Haley kept her cheek on the cold surface and stared ahead at the black tattooed symbols on the man’s arms, resting on the table next to her. Her Master, Raden, cruelly wrenched her legs apart while he took off his belt. The men’s eyes roamed over her bare skin, covered in deep sores inflicted by Raden’s favorite device, his whip. At least his belt just left welts and bruises, the leather whip sliced through her sensitive skin with every stroke. She automatically checked out mentally whenever the real pain began, escaping to another world inside her mind.
Raden was performing for his audience at the table, swinging the belt with powerful smacks, purposefully landing it between her legs where it stung the most. Her eyes welled up with humiliated tears. As the pain began to increase, she suppressed the wild urge to run. She wasn’t tied up, but the collar made it impossible to use her powers. She would be instantly overpowered if she tried anything.
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