Fashionably Hotter Than Hell

by Robyn Peterman

  The sense of relief was overwhelming, but my body stayed tense and alert. Where in the Hell were we? We were no longer lying on my bed, but instead on the cold, hard ground of some place unfamiliar. I grabbed my mate and pulled her close.

  As my eyes adjusted to the dim surroundings, I felt Raquel grasp my arm.

  "We’re alive?" she questioned frantically.

  We’d gone to bed naked and now we were naked in a dark cavern. Raquel waved her hand and dressed us in black fatigues and combat boots. Balls flapping in the wind was not the optimal choice in an unknown situation. I grinned at her color choice. We matched our surroundings—we blended right in to the darkness. Her magic constantly surprised me.

  "Feels like we’re alive," I answered quietly. "We're together at least, so it works for me."

  “Oh my God,” she whimpered softly. “I didn’t hurt you. We’re alive and we didn’t die last night. You’re still here with me.”

  She ran her delicate hands over my face and body, making sure I was real. Tracing my lips with her fingers and cupping my cheeks in her hands, Raquel murmured and wept silently. I did the same and thanked every deity I could think of for sparing us.

  “We’re both here and as alive and well as two undead people can be,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood. However, I held her tight to my body. “The question of the hour is, where is here?”

  "I don’t know. What is this place?" she asked as she looked around the stark, dank area we had some how ended up in.

  "I have no fucking idea," I told her truthfully. "I suppose there's only one way to find out. You ready to rumble?" I stood and held my hand out to her.

  She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. "Yes, my mate. I believe I am ready for just about anything."

  "That's good," I told her with a grin, "because our story starts now. Let's go kick its ass."

  A soft giggle escaped her lips. With a light punch to my arm, Raquel took my hand in hers and we started our journey.

  With careful steps, watchful eyes, and faith in each other, we walked slowly into the darkness—together.

  Just the way fate had intended. Problem was… fate could be a bitch.

  Chapter 12

  .As we made our way out of the small cavern we awoke in, I took in the morbid atmosphere of our unknown location. The walls were covered in bones and skulls. It was pitch black, but being a Vampyre I could see the macabre décor clearly. The dead were stacked atop each other rather artistically —not full bodies, but pieces. They were meticulously piled from floor to ceiling. It was as strangely beautiful as it was disturbing. The scent of death permeated the air, but it was not recent. These bones had resided in their grim museum for centuries. Raquel held tight to my hand and pulled me along.

  “Slow down,” I urged as she began to pick up speed.

  We were treading on a burial ground of epic proportions. I was sure someone or something might not be pleased.

  “I know where we are,” she whispered with excitement as she increased her pace.

  “Would you like to let me in on the secret?” I inquired as I lengthened my stride and moved next to her.

  “Under Paris. In the Catacombs,” she told me as we took a right into a narrow passage.

  How did we end up in Paris when only hours ago we were in Kentucky?

  I shook my head. At least we weren’t in the bowels of Hell. However, Hell might have been a bit more pleasant than the megatomb we were in.

  “Well, this is certainly a surprise. I thought this was a tourist attraction of sorts,” I said.

  I cautiously moved my large frame along the corridor wall careful not to topple the morbid pyramids of the dead.

  “Not this part,” Raquel explained as she quickly made her way past several ornate monuments dedicated to the thousands of deceased piled up down here. “The humans don’t know of this part. It got cut off from the other tunnels hundreds of years ago and basically forgotten.”

  Raquel took a sharp left into an even smaller hallway. My girl was fast and clearly on a mission. Ducking my head to avoid a hanging femur, I followed her wondering what exactly we were going to find at the end of our sprint through the enormous grave.

  “Is it bad luck to touch anything down here?” I asked as I realized how many lifeless body parts I’d come into contact with.

  “Only if you’re an empath,” she informed me as she swiftly breezed through the passages touching nothing.

  “Nope, not an emapth, thank God,” I muttered as I came face to face with a skull that had clearly been killed by a blow to the head. “That must have hurt.”

  “You’re hurt?” Raquel asked, alarmed as she stopped mid-stride and looked back.

  “Um, no. I was just chatting with a… never mind. Where are we going?”

  “To Gareth.”

  “Your brother?” I asked.

  What the Hell was Gareth doing in the Catacombs and why were we going to meet him?

  “It has to be him,” she insisted as she began to move again.

  It was a lovely view, watching my mate’s ass sway in her tight black pants as I followed, but this whole situation wasn’t working for me. I needed a little more info before I plunged head first into Satan only knew what. I just got my mate. I had no plans of losing her because I wasn’t prepared.

  “Raquel. Stop,” I said as I grabbed her arm and halted her forward progress. “A little more information would be handy.”

  “Oh crap,” she mumbled and blushed. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  She bit down on her bottom lip and shook her head causing her curls to bounce. My instinct was to tangle my fingers in her hair and bite that lip myself. However, with all the hollow dead eyes watching, I figured I’d wait for a less dismal backdrop to ravage my mate.

  “This isn’t exactly the place I’d have taken you on a honeymoon,” I said with a wry grin.

  “God, I certainly hope not,” Raquel said with a shudder and a giggle.

  “Explain.”

  “Gareth and I found this place shortly after we were turned. It was a safe haven to talk and not be heard.”

  “Heard by whom?” I asked curious.

  All eleven of the royal children had been turned into Vampyres over five hundred years ago. It was by their choice and they’d been turned by their father—the King of the Vampyres. After a disastrous and deadly experiment of trying to turn his favorite and most beloved wife, the King discovered that a woman could not be turned after childbirth. Sadly, this information wasn’t widely known amongst Vampyres and my mother died in the same process.

  The King had many wives as was common and expected of royalty in that time. Heirs were imperative and the King was and is a good man. The practice of royal polygamy was abolished soon thereafter as Vampyres had true mates and couldn’t breed.

  Each of the royal children ruled a territory except for Juliet. She had been thought dead for centuries and wasn’t awarded a territory. Unfortunately, she had been alive and well and wreaking havoc all over the place. Thankfully, she was now chained and locked in the interrogation room at The Cressida House in Kentucky.

  “Demons,” Raquel clarified. “They were everywhere for about fifty years after we were turned. Gareth and I found this place. We can always call each other here. Actually, Gareth can call all of us. It’s his gift.”

  “All of you?” I asked trying to follow her train of thought.

  “All of my siblings. Gareth can call us and bring us to him.”

  As if that answer sufficiently answered my question, Raquel turned to resume her trek.

  “Whoa,” I said as I caught up and took her delicate hand in mine. “I’ll keep moving as long as you keep talking.”

  “Right,” she said as we stopped short in front of a cavernous hole. “Do you want to fly down or jump?”

  “What do you suggest?” I asked with raised brows and a smirk.

  “Ummm… maybe we should float down. Can you do that? You’re awfully young,” she remind
ed me of our age difference with a grin.

  My beautiful mate had about three hundred years on me. I took her face in my hands and chuckled. “I always forget you’re older. I suppose that makes you a Vampyre cougar.”

  “I suppose it does,” she replied coyly. “But back to my original inquiry… can you float, little mister?”

  “First of all, nothing about me is little and does the Pope wear red shoes?” I asked insulted that she’d doubt my skills.

  “Well, the old one did,” she muttered, trying not to giggle.

  “Damn it.” I ran my hands through my hair and chuckled. “I have to keep up on my religious pop culture. Fine. Does he still wear a pointy hat?”

  “On special occasions,” she informed me with an eye roll.

  “I like it when you’re my friend,” I said, tracing her full lips with my thumb.

  “I’m much more than your friend.” She smiled and nipped at my finger.

  “Yes. You are. And you always will be. As to the preposterous question concerning my ability to float, I shall ignore it and pretend you think I am capable of anything. Clear?”

  “Yep.”

  She gave me a sexy little salute that made my pants tighten. Holy Hell, not even the gruesome surroundings quelled my desire for the crazy gorgeous woman who was finally my mate.

  “What’s at the bottom of this pit we’re about to drift into?” I asked as I glanced down.

  The bottom was undetectable. Surely, not a good sign.

  “Hopefully my brother,” she answered gravely.

  “Could it be someone else?” I asked as I scanned the area.

  “Gareth and I are the only ones who come here and he’s the only one with the power to call me to him,” she said as she, too cased the room surrounding us.

  “And he does this for fun?” I queried.

  “Nope, he’s only done it once in the last hundred years. The Demons were wreaking havoc in his territory in Asia and he needed a hand in getting rid of them,” she explained with a cocky little shrug.

  “Let’s hope it’s something as easy as that,” I replied, taking her hand and began our descent into the gaping black hole.

  “You know, it’s probably going to be something shitty.”

  “With our track record, I’d have to agree,” I concurred. “However, I’m good with just about anything as long as we’re together.”

  “Anything?” She gazed at me with disbelief.

  “Anything,” I assured her.

  Raquel squeezed my hand and my stomach tightened with a sick dread I couldn’t name. I hoped to Hell and back I wouldn’t have to eat my last statement.

  But somehow I knew I would.

  I just didn’t know how yet.

  Chapter 13

  We dropped slowly about three hundred feet into the bowels of the earth, but the ambience was much the same as the nightmare above. With as much death as I’d dealt with in my centuries as a Vampyre, the massive crypt we were traipsing through made me uneasy.

  “Where is he?” I asked as I watched Raquel pause and glance around with uncertainty.

  “It’s odd.” She frowned and sniffed the air. “I can’t find his scent.”

  I’d had the pleasure of meeting Gareth on many occasions over the years. He was an arrogant ass and I enjoyed his irreverence tremendously. He was also an outstanding warrior and I’d had the good fortune of sparring with him. I too tried to find his scent to no avail. Was he even here?

  “Would he call you as a joke?” I asked tightly as my anger began to rise.

  Raquel and I should have been locked in a room having mind blowing sex, not answering a Vampyre sibling prank call in a vault of death.

  “No, definitely not. He values his body parts too much to be that stupid,” she answered. She closed her eyes and concentrated. “He’s here. I know he’s here.”

  I opened my mind and let it wander. One of my gifts was reading minds. If Gareth was close by, maybe I could pick up his thoughts. He was, I did… and it wasn’t pretty.

  “To the right,” I said tersely.

  Raquel opened her eyes and stared at me. “You found him?”

  “I found someone,” I told her cautiously. It was possibly Gareth, but if it was him he’d changed dramatically.

  “What the Hell do you mean?” she asked nervously.

  “I’m not sure. Follow me and stay behind me,” I instructed.

  With a huff and a hiss, Raquel punched me in the shoulder. “I’m as powerful as you are,” she insisted. “We walk side-by-side.”

  “While that may be true,” I conceded. “I’m still a macho cavedude. I just mated with the love of my life, whom I’ve chased for hundreds of years. It would do wonders for my peace of mind if you would walk behind me.”

  She glared at me and I grinned. Even pissed off she was hotter than Hell. I could literally see her brain working as she tried to win our impasse. Then her eyes lit up and it was all I could do not to slam her against the wall and take her.

  “What do I get if I do?” she asked as a smile pulled at her beautiful lips.

  “What do you want?” I asked curious at what she would choose.

  There was very little if anything I wouldn’t do for her and I wondered if she was aware of that fact.

  “I want to be on top,” she informed me with a sexy glint in her eyes and her hands on her shapely hips. “And I get to boss you in the bedroom for an entire evening.”

  “How about this,” I countered. “You can boss me in the bedroom for a week straight and every Tuesday for the rest of eternity if you walk behind me.”

  “Really?” She clapped her hands together with delight and danced in a circle.

  It was a no brainer and a win—win. Watching her naked and atop me was a fantasy of mine. As long as I ended up buried to the hilt inside her body I didn’t give a shit who was in charge.

  “Really,” I promised. “Now get that hot little ass behind me before you force me to spank it and let’s find your brother.”

  “Yes, sir,” she purred suggestively and dramatically lowered her gaze with a snort.

  “What was that?” I asked as she continued to giggle.

  “I was being submissive.” She burst into full blown laughter. “Don’t you want me to go all Fifty Shades of Mated Vampyre for you?”

  “Sweet Jesus, did you read that book too?” I asked as I pinched the bridge of my nose and groaned. My gal was anything but submissive, and I liked it just fine—actually I loved it. She was a freaking animal in bed.

  “You read it?” she demanded shocked.

  “I most certainly did not,” I huffed.

  “But you said too,” she accused. “As in you read it.”

  “Astrid read it and unfortunately, I got a play-by-play synopsis of the damned thing,” I said with a sad shake of my head. “Those are hours of my life I will never be able to get back.”

  She laughed and threw her arms around me.

  “So I take it you read it?” I inquired.

  She nodded and winked. “I did. It reminded me of Twilight except they screwed all the time.”

  “You know it was based on Twilight fan fiction,” I told her.

  She gaped at me.

  “What?”

  “You read Twilight?”

  “Absolutely not,” I snapped. “Astrid did.”

  “I’m starting to think Astrid is a convenient excuse for you to hide your metrosexual reading tendencies.”

  “My metrosexual reading tendencies strictly pertain to the classics, not fiction where Vampyres sparkle in the sun,” I informed her flatly.

  “Come on. I thought that part was really funny,” she said. “I especially liked that they drank animal blood and hated werewolves.”

  “Have you ever tried animal blood?” I asked her.

  “Hell no. Have you?”

  “On a dare from Astrid after she read the damn book. We both did,” I replied sheepishly.

  “And?”

  “
It was bland and quite gross. However, Astrid heaved for several hours after our stunt, which made the entire unsavory business worth it.”

  Raquel’s laughter made my heart sing. The thought of making her happy for eternity made me feel ten feet tall.

  “I love you,” I told her.