“She’s the Custodian of his Light just like I was for you.”
“We don’t know that, Kai. Their path will be their own and all I know for certain is that they’ll have to figure it out for themselves.”
“I guess but I don’t see why they couldn’t have come up from the Underworld just for one day.”
He was quiet for a moment and seemed to be debating whether or not he should say something. Kai was surprised that Asmodeus wasn’t more bothered by his brother’s absence. She was about to question him further but he spun her out once again before tugging her back to him and kissing her playfully.
She sighed contentedly and rested her head against the warm expanse of his chest.
“Still…it would have been nice if all of your brothers could have been here.”
“Imagine the drama if Lucifer and Zemi had come?”
“It would have been epic.” Kai pulled back and looked around the tent. “Considering that all but four of our guests are supernaturals, I think this wedding has been pretty tame and drama-free.”
“It’s still early.”
Kai’s laughter was swallowed up by another one of those deep, bone-melting kisses he was so damned good at. He tasted of champagne and chocolate and lust all rolled into one.
The dinging of silverware against glass and hooting catcalls from his brothers drowned out the music. Instead of pulling away, Asmodeus doubled down. He deepened the kiss and dipped her low, bracing her body against his bent knee, so she hovered a foot from the ground. Kai linked her arms around his neck and returned the kiss with equal passion.
Applause and whistles surrounded them but Kai barely heard it through the haze of burgeoning desire. In a blur of speed, Asmodeus whisked her back to her feet. He slowed the kiss before suckling her lower lip and finally allowing her to come up for air.
Breathless and dizzy from his kiss, Kai whispered, “Can we leave for our honeymoon now or would it be rude to leave our own wedding before it’s officially over?”
“You’re the fairy in this relationship. You could use your magic to whisk away from here. All you need is a beam of light and off we go.”
Panic swirled hotly in Kai’s chest.
Beam of light or not, it was unlikely she could whisk them anywhere. She could try but what if, like all the other times since the Ring of Solomon came off her finger, nothing happened? What would he think of his new bride then? How special would he find her if she was just plain old Kai Kelly? Would he still want her if he knew that she wasn’t special? He said he loved her but what if he only loved the magical version?
That was the woman he had fallen in love with.
Asmodeus must have sensed her fear because his playful expression shifted to one of concern. They stopped dancing and it took Kai a moment to realize the jukebox had fallen silent.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, the deep baritone of his voice sliding around her like silk. “Kai, why have you been refusing to use your magic?”
“The music stopped.” Kai flashed a smile and tried to stifle her fears. “Let’s get a drink.”
The line between his brows deepened and he cupped her cheek with his hand. Kai closed her eyes and pressed her hand against his, reveling in the warmth of his palm and the gentleness of his touch. It never ceased to amaze her that a man capable of such destruction could be so tender.
She wrapped her fingers around his before dragging them to her lips and kissing them. She peered up at him, and those intense blue eyes made her heart do that fluttery dance.
“I’m fine, Asmodeus. Really.”
“No, she’s not.”
A familiar but unwelcome voice cut into the conversation and the two of them realized that more than the music had stopped. Silence had fallen over their wedding guests, who were standing around the edges of the tent staring at the wedding crasher. Asmodeus’ expression of concern had morphed into one of anger and his eyes glowed bright red. He wrapped his arm protectively around Kai’s waist, pulling her close.
Irritation mixed with surprise shimmied up Kai’s back as the woman approached them. Several different comments raced through Kai’s mind as she struggled to find the best thing to say. So, she went with the one name that she knew would cause the woman the most grief.
“Hello…Grandmother.”
***
“I do hate it when you call me that,” Kristine simpered. “But I am what I am.”
The irritating woman sighed dramatically and brushed her long hair off her shoulders. Dressed in a gauzy pink and white gown, she didn’t look a day over thirty but she was centuries older. Kai’s grandmother was Fae and a servant of Zemi the Fae Queen.
For Asmodeus, that meant she couldn’t be trusted. The Fae and the demons had a long history of conflict, much of it thanks to Lucifer’s on-again, off-again fling with Zemi.
“You weren’t invited,” Asmodeus seethed.
“I guess we spoke too soon about the absence of drama.” Kai’s voice, sweet and calm, washed over him like a soothing balm. Her ability to settle his nerves would never cease to amaze or humble him. “Asmodeus, it’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. Not one damned bit. I don’t appreciate uninvited guests.”
“And I don’t appreciate not being invited.” Kristine looked around at the guests, her narrowed gaze landing briefly on Willow. “I see you managed to invite the High Priestess of the Witches but you failed to include any of the Fae.”
“Zemi was invited,” Kai replied.
Asmodeus grit his teeth. The last complication he needed right now was a discussion about Zemi and Lucifer but that’s exactly what was coming. He could feel it.
“Kristine—“
“Then where is she?” Kristine swept her arms wide and cast a curious look around. “You’re missing a brother as well, Asmodeus.”
Damn it all.
She’s nosing around for information. Satan’s voice shot into the collective consciousness of the Brotherhood. I can smell it.
No shit. Let me handle it.
“She and my brother are in the Underworld. They had some matters to attend to.”
“Yes, yes.” She waved her hand dismissively. “We received her message but it’s been two Earthly months since we last heard from her. It’s unlike Zemi to be gone from the Fae dimension for so long. You know our powers weaken if we—“
“Not in the Underworld,” Asmodeus interrupted. “Her gifts are in stasis there. She can’t use them but she can’t lose them either.”
“Still,” Kristine sighed. “It seems odd that she wouldn’t be here, at such an unprecedented event. Zemi’s absence aside, it felt wrong that nobody from Kai’s Fae bloodline would be present at one of the most important days of her life. I thought perhaps it was an oversight.”
“Nope. Not an oversight.” His wife remained at his side and while her voice was gentle, there was no hiding her steely strength. Kai’s body tensed against Asmodeus’ as she faced the woman who had betrayed her family. “Please leave.”
“Kai, I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need me.”
“Need you?” Kai scoffed.
“Yes. You need me more than you know.”
“I don’t need or want anything from you after everything you’ve done.”
“What have I done, really? My actions, those that you see as indiscretions, came from a place of love and duty.”
“Oh, that’s rich, Grandma. My mother, you remember her, right? She’s the woman you abandoned at birth. She taught me to be honest with the people I love. Not lie to them.”
Asmodeus’ body hummed with restraint as everyone around them fell silent. The air throbbed with tension and buzzed with the energy that rolled off the various supernaturals who stood primed and ready to defend Kai, if necessary. Kristine glanced around at the gathering circle and for a split second, Asmodeus thought the woman was going to leave but no such luck.
“Oh, really?” She cast a wicked gaze at Kai and then to Asmodeus. She narrowed h
er eyes and lowered her voice to a skeptical whisper. “You mean you’ve never lied to protect the ones you love? To protect yourself? Never? Not even one itsy-bitsy white lie? You are a demon, after all.”
Asmodeus’ gut clenched. She knew. Damn her. The old fairy bitch knew about Lucifer and Zemi’s vanishing. Worse. She knew he had been keeping it from Kai.
His arm tightened around Kai’s waist. She was shaking now, her body tensed and fury surged through Asmodeus. His eyes shifted to their demon form and flashed red. Damn this woman for casting a pall on this day, the one Kai had looked forward to with pure joy and goodness—everything Kristine was not.
Asmodeus’ heart sank because he was no better than Kristine, was he?
He told himself that by keeping Lucifer and Zemi’s disappearance a secret he was protecting Kai but he’d been lying to himself as much as he had been to her.
It had been an omission more than a lie, but an untruth nonetheless.
“You should go back to the Fae realm where you belong, Kristine,” Kai said firmly. The realm may have kept your appearance youthful but it can’t hide that shriveled up husk you call a heart.”
“That’s rather harsh, don’t you think?”
“You abandoned my mother in infancy, and when you finally did show up again, it was only so you could hand me and Asmodeus over to the Fae Queen. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy reunion, Grandma.”
“You need me, girl.” Kristine’s expression hardened. “I’m all the family you have left.”
“No, you ain’t,” Isadora shouted. “Take a look around, sister. Kai has plenty of family.”
All five members of the Brotherhood along with the other high-ranking supernaturals had formed a circle around the three of them. Even Willow had joined the defensive ranks and stood by Satan’s side, looking ready to join the fight, if needed.
“They aren’t her blood. Her Fae magic comes directly from my bloodline.”
“Kai’s magic is her own,” Asmodeus seethed. “Her power has little to do with you.”
“I am her blood.”
Kai shuddered in his arms, a subtle but distinct response to Kristine’s statement and that’s when it dawned on him. This woman was the reason that Kai didn’t want to use her magic. Anger shimmied beneath his skin and heat radiated from him in thick ribbons. Kai was nothing like Kristine or her deceitful nature.
“Oh, really?” Kristine folded her arms over her breasts. “Then why hasn’t she been using her gifts?”
“We’ve got some gifts for you,” Mammon interjected.
The eyes of all five of his brothers glowed red in the summer night, casting a bloody glow over Kai’s white dress. Asmodeus’ heart clenched in his chest. The situation was going the wrong way fast.
Don’t make a move unless I ask you to. Asmodeus touched the collective mind of the Brotherhood. Kristine is a powerful Fae but I’m stronger than she is and so is Kai.
She didn’t come here to wish you well. Satan’s gritty voice shot into Asmodeus’ mind.
“As you can see, Kristine,” Asmodeus gestured to the tightening circle of supernaturals, “Your presence is not welcome here. You should leave. Now.”
“I came to give my granddaughter a wedding gift and I’m not leaving before she gets it.”
Kristine raised her hands and a glimmer of white light flashed between them.
Before she could make her next move, Asmodeus gathered the power of fire in his fist, and shot a fireball at the ground. With both arms wrapped around Kai, and with the image of their destination secured firmly in his mind, he and his bride vanished in a blinding cloud of smoke and fire.
Chapter Three
Kai barely had time to catch her breath before she realized what had happened. Asmodeus had sent them both hurtling into the abyss. Clinging to him tightly, eyes squeezed shut, she focused on the feel of his muscles beneath her palms. He was like one big hunk of concrete, an anchor that kept her mind connected to some semblance of reality while they hurtled through time and space.
Her feet hit the soft ground soundlessly but her teeth clattered together as they made their sudden landing. Shivering from the speed with which they’d traveled, Kai took a few deep breaths and dug her fingers into the unyielding muscles of his biceps, forcing her racing heart to slow down. This form of travel wasn’t her favorite and often made her feel ill, but she refused to let it get the better of her this time.
“Open your eyes, Kai.” His warm breath fanned against her ear. “You’re safe.”
Frustration and more than a little annoyance bubbled up, quickly overtaking the physical side effects of the magic ride.
“I know,” she bit out. Kai’s opened her eyes and glared up at her husband. Pushing him away, she slipped out of his embrace. “What is wrong with you? I am perfectly capable of handling Kristine and her nonsense. We we were in the middle of our wedding reception and you just –poof—decide to yank me out of there without even discussing it with me first?”
“There really wasn’t time to debate the issue. She was about use her light and, in my experience, nothing good comes from that. Besides, I thought you’d be relieved to be as far away from her as possible.
“Well, I am. I guess.”
“Then what is it? I know Kristine disrupting our reception upset you but I feel like there’s more to it.”
“I just…”
Kai fiddled with the buttons on Asmodeus’ white shirt. She was worried he would see guilt in her eyes because it was a good bet that Kristine knew Kai hadn’t been able to use her magic. That nasty old fairy came to the wedding just so she could reveal Kai for the fraud she had become. Tears stung her eyes but she willed them away.
Asmodeus deserved the truth and she would tell him.
But not yet.
Was it so wrong to want to enjoy their honeymoon before….
“Kai, are you really that upset with me?” His tone softened. “You know I was only trying to protect you but you’re right. I should have said something to you before leaving the way we did. I’m sorry.”
“No.” She shook her head furiously. “You’re not the one who should be apologizing.”
“Then what is it?”
Guilt bubbled up, threatening to boil over but Kai shifted focus, wanting and needing to think of almost anything else other than the inevitable truth.
“We—we left a tent full of guests without saying a goodbye or thank you or anything. Don’t you think that was a tad rude?”
“Well, I am a demon…”
Kai let out a growl of frustration but couldn’t stop the smile that erupted. Even with all that happened and her own internal struggle, the man could still get her to smile. He always seemed to know exactly what she needed. Kai had never been so connected with another person in her entire life.
How would she ever be able to let him go?
“Asmodeus, do you have any idea how infuriating you can be? One minute I’m furious with you and the next I want to kiss the life out of you. I mean—”
Sand seeped into the strappy stilettos she was wearing and completely interrupted her train of thought. Sand?
“Wait a minute. Where the hell are we?”
Hands on her hips and with her long veil blowing in the breeze around her, Kai surveyed their surroundings. She had been so caught up in their sudden departure that she hadn’t even realized where they were. A glimmering white beach, dotted with palm trees, stretched out on either side of them and a turquoise ocean rolled tranquilly behind Asmodeus for as far as the eye could see. She looked over her shoulder to find a sprawling modern pink and white beach bungalow with massive picture windows. The place looked like it had more space inside than the two of them would ever need.
“Well, we’re not in Hell. That I can promise you.”
Asmodeus’ eyes glimmered with mischief and the big brute looked totally pleased with himself. He unfurled the bow tie and unbuttoned his shirt collar before strolling past her with a satisfied smirk plastered on h
is handsome face.
“Give me a few minutes and it’ll be straight-up heavenly.”
“Wait just a minute.” Kai grabbed his hand and pulled him back to her. “You think you’re really irresistible don’t you?”
“Almost as irresistible as you are.”
“Where are we, Asmodeus?” She quickly covered his mouth with one hand. “If you say, the beach, I’m going to smack you.”
He kissed the tip of her fingers and tried to bite them playfully but she yanked her hand away to prevent him from reaching his prize.
“Before Kristine crashed our wedding reception, weren’t you asking how soon we could leave for our honeymoon? Since my only goal in this new life of ours is to see to your every need, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t whisk you away and grant your wish?”
“Well, I guess there’s truth to that but it’s kind of beside the point because you have insisted on keeping our honeymoon destination a secret. So I still don’t know where we actually are. Where are we?”
“A private island in the Caribbean. Our private island, to be exact.”
“Our island?”
“Yes.” A wide grin cracked his handsome face. “Demon’s Paradise. At least, that’s what I’ve always called it ever since I won it.”
"You won it? Like in a poker game or something?"
"Not quite." He arched one dark eyebrow. "I took it in exchange for the soul of an old gypsy man. He wanted more time on earth. I gave it to him in exchange for this island. A fair trade considering I got his soul in the end. Now that it’s yours as well, you’re welcome to call it whatever you like.”
“You—or we—own the whole island?”
“Yes. On the other side of the house is a dock and a boat, which can take us to the mainland whenever we want.”
“What land? All I see is ocean.”
“It’s visible from the other side of the island and it’s not mainland, exactly. It’s the main island in this little cluster. We have two servants and a chef but they leave at sundown every day.”
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