by Sam Cheever
I started pounding on his back in an effort to roust him from the spell but he was single-minded in his sensuous assault on my body.
I could feel the black magic coating the air and I knew the witches were using powerful magic to keep Emo enthralled. I briefly wondered why but then I heard a tearing sound felt cool, night air on my nether regions.
I screamed in frustration and felt my daemon hickey pulse and sting.
Oh shit! Dialle!
The first pulse was a small one. But the next one threw sparks into the air and the third one blasted Emo off my chest.
The chanting around me stopped and the resulting silence was almost painful with expectancy.
I threw myself off the altar and into a defensive stance. “Okay, you people have pissed me off now.” In anger I did something I’d never done before, I threw a power blanket toward the shadows where I knew the witches stood.
I spread the power thin and wide so that it covered a large area but didn’t cause too much damage to any one person. I heard it hit a couple of targets with a sizzling sound and an accompanying yelp but for the most part I must have missed. Sensing the end of their fun, they had apparently skedaddled before I left the altar.
I quickly followed my power blast on foot and confirmed that the witches had all made a run for it. Several air vehicles zoomed past over my head as they made a quick getaway.
I returned to the clearing around the fire to find Emo sitting on the altar looking dazed.
Dialle was standing next to him. He didn’t look happy. “You are lucky I recognized the spell, pretender, or I’d have extinguished you on the spot.”
Emo jumped to his feet and sneered, “Afraid I’ll accomplish what you have not been able to do, false Prince?”
The two devils stood nose to nose, power and anger wafting off of them in waves.
I fought the urge to jump in the Viper and run away. But being an extremely brave Tweener and probably a bit stupid to boot, I strode toward them instead.
“Okay, okay break it up boys. I stepped in between them, facing Dialle. Emo jumped away from me as if I were a jolt of electricity. “This was not Emo’s fault, Dialle and you know it. We need to work together if we’re going to figure out what’s going on.”
Dialle’s eyes roiled with colors as a virtual storm of rage flowed through him. The air around him was so hot I felt sweat dripping down my cleavage. Like Emo I wanted to step away too but I knew I had to stand up to him or there would be hell to pay later, literally.
With my own storm brewing, I waited for Dialle to cool down. Finally he looked away from me and the temperature began to drop. I kept my sigh of relief as small and undetectable as possible.
“Good. Now here’s what we’re gonna do…”
Dialle reached out a hand and grabbed my wrist. I managed to yell, “No!” before we were locked in time and space.
We landed in Dialle’s quarters at the Royal Court.
“Damn you, Dialle! I hate it when you do that!”
He just turned and stalked away. “You stink of him.”
Now that just pissed me off. “How dare you, Dialle? Where the hell were you when they snatched us? Why didn’t you do something to help instead of getting all pissed off now?”
He turned back to me, the storm still raging in his eyes. “I did help, Astra! That’s why you’re standing here now instead of lying naked and plundered on that altar!”
“Plundered!” I didn’t know my voice could reach that octave.
I’m coming, Astra. Hang on.
I jumped at the voice in my head and then tried to look normal. Which at that exact moment meant I needed to look outraged and pissed off. Not hard to pull off since those are two of my more natural things.
“And don’t forget you shut me out. You masked your movements from me for two days. You’re lucky I found you at all.”
Well, that was technically true. My face gained a slightly pink color. But I wasn’t going to take the whole blame for it. “If you hadn’t tried to do violence to me I wouldn’t have had to go into hiding!” I shrieked back.
He threw his dark head back and roared, shaking the walls and breaking small objects around the room.
I stepped into a defensive stance and pulled a power bubble around myself.
He stalked away from me and started pacing the room.
I waited silently.
Finally he stopped pacing and looked at me. “Did you find my father?”
I couldn’t help it. As usual my smart mouth beat back my good sense and took the lead. “You mean after I helped my parents kidnap him?”
He strode toward me looking like he would kill me the old-fashioned way, with his hands around my neck. I threw my hands up in preparation for battle.
But his steps slowed and he stopped outside my protective bubble. He swiped an elegant, golden hand over his face and blew out a frustrated breath. “Damn it, Astra, you try my patience at every turn.”
A commotion sounded outside the door and I heard an explosion and the sound of someone getting thrown into the door.
Dialle started toward the door but I grabbed his arm.
He looked at me.
“It’s Emo.”
Dialle jerked his arm from my grasp and swore, long and hard.
The door blasted into the room and skidded across the floor. I leapt out of its way with a yelp and watched it splinter against the far wall.
Emo strode into the room just behind the door. He did not look happy.
When he spoke his voice had that booming quality that told me he had drenched himself in power. “She’d better be all right, false Prince or I’ll rip your intestines out through your arrogant nose…” He stopped when he saw me standing there, eyes agog and mouth, as usual, hanging open.
“You okay, Astra?”
I tried to speak but my throat seemed to have closed. Finally I just nodded.
Dialle was suddenly standing in front of Emo with his hand at his throat. The temperature in the room rose to boiling point in the blink of an eye.
I screamed as Emo’s face turned purple and his beautiful eyes started to bug out. I ran toward them but Dialle flung a hand out toward me and I was suddenly encased in hard, uncompromising air. Unable to move in any direction.
Emo placed a hand on Dialle’s chest, fingers bent and started to rip through it. Dialle’s power must have lost some of its intensity because Emo suddenly looked like he could breathe again. He coughed and gagged but kept the deadly looking hand on Dialle’s chest, where I could hear it ripping through muscle and bone with a terrible sound.
Dialle fought to stay upright against the pain and suddenly my daemon hickey sparked and I could feel his power regaining strength.
I realized he’d tapped into my power to gain the level that would let him best Emo.
Emo’s hand suddenly flew away from Dialle’s chest and his face started darkening again as he choked under the pressure.
“You’re dead,” Dialle told my best friend.
“No!” I did the only thing I could think to do, I called in backup. Reaching for my cross I placed it on my forehead.
Quick as a thought my father and Myra blinked into the room.
“Stop!” My father’s power circled the two devils and yanked them apart, sizzling against their skin where it touched them.
Fueled by rage and a sense of survival, both devils turned on my father and looked as if they’d attack but then Myra’s power joined his and created a wall between the two angry devils and us.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt my air prison dissolving. “Thanks, Pop.”
My father smiled at me and then returned his attention to my devils. “Now, you will both take a deep breath and we will all sit down and discuss this like rational creatures.”
I held my breath, not certain how much power my father and Myra would have in the heart of the dark world.
Apparently they had enough. Dialle and Emo both made visible attempts to d
raw back their anger and stand down. Once they looked as if they’d regained their senses, the two angels dropped their power shields.
Dialle looked at my father and gave a slight bow. “Welcome to the Royal Court of Dialle the First, Seraphim James.”
I did a double take. My eyes flew toward my father and I gave a yelp of surprise. He saw me looking and lifted the gorgeous, silver wings away from his body to give them one, gentle flap.
“You went back.” My voice came out in a hoarse, shocked whisper.
He smiled. “I never really left, Astra.” He had the good grace to look a bit sheepish. “In my heart anyway. I decided it was time to make it official. It appears you need my help.”
“So that’s what he meant,” I murmured to myself. The Big Guy hadn’t actually expected me to do anything to bring my father back. He knew that the current kerfuffle would be enough to draw him in.
Myra said, “Stop mumbling, Astra. It makes you look demented.”
I grinned at her, so relieved to see my father happy again that even her crankiness was a welcome thing. “I love you too, angel.”
Myra rolled her eyes at me and shook her head. But I thought I saw a sparkle in her eye that hadn’t been there for a while.
“Will somebody please tell me what the hell’s going on?” Emo looked from one to the other of us with a perplexed expression on his beautiful face.
I laughed. “I’ll fill you in later, partner.” I looked at Dialle. “For now, I think Seraphim James might have some ’splainin’ to do.”
My father laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. The arm was draped in shimmering silver with sparks of gold that whispered against my skin like a distant memory. I realized with a start that my father had often donned his angelic robes when I was a child. A sign that, had I been older, I would have seen for what it was. A longing to return.
Dialle motioned toward the long divan where he and I had spent some truly delicious moments exploring our options, in a manner of speaking. Crushing that totally inappropriate thought ruthlessly from my mind, I dropped my butt onto a nearby chair.
My father sat on the end of the divan closest to me and Myra hovered in the background protectively.
Dialle sat on the opposite end of the divan and Emo sat in the chair across from me. When we were all settled my father turned to Dialle and said, “I helped Danika take your father from his rooms.”
Chapter Nineteen
Alarming News Abounds
The Angel looked him in the eye and told him of his part,
But will the devil prince be led, by his anger or his heart?
The only sign that my father’s statement disturbed Dialle was a slight rise in the temperature of the room. He focused midnight black eyes at my father and said, “Go on.”
My father didn’t look at me and I felt he was deliberately avoiding my stunned gaze. I could only assume he was trying to distance me from his actions and, since I’d had no part in what he and my mother had done, I forced my mouth shut and sat quietly, albeit with a pounding heart.
“First let me say, I did it to protect your father.”
Dialle’s response was a derisive snort. “I find that hard to believe but do continue.”
My father started twisting his hands, a sure sign that he was feeling torn about something. “I understand how it looks to you and I don’t blame you for being cautious with me. But I can assure you that, although your father may suffer some…uncomfortable…moments, he will not be truly harmed.”
“Bring him back immediately.”
Seraphim James shook his red-gold head. “I’m sorry, I cannot.”
Dialle surged to his feet, his golden face mottled with angry red splotches. I wiped a sheen of sweat from my face with my sleeve and looked around, expecting at any moment to see a chair or divan burst into flames.
Myra was suddenly standing between my father and Dialle. She stood taller than normal, with legs spread wide and hands on hips, her lovely face hardened into a cold and classically beautiful shell. She pulsed with power and purpose. “Stand down, Dialle, Prince of the Royal Devil Court of Dialle the First. Or meet thy maker and be judged.”
Dialle stared at the woman who towered in front of him and narrowed his eyes assessingly. I figured, knowing him, that he was trying to decide if he could best her. But since he suddenly relaxed his shoulders and stepped away to pace back and forth behind the long divan, I figured that he’d decided on utilizing the better part of valor.
Myra relaxed down to normal size and stopped pulsing but otherwise remained where she was, only stepping to the side a bit so that my father could retain eye contact with Dialle.
“Prince Dialle, believe me, I understand your concern and I’m doing everything in my power to protect your father. His…abduction was necessary for his protection or I would never have allowed Danika’s plan to move forward.”
Dialle stopped pacing and turned to glare at my father. “And what exactly is Mx. Phelps’ plan?”
The use of her married name was a deliberate jibe at my father and I saw him stiffen slightly in response. “I think you know the answer to that question, Your Highness. I have managed to convince her that I have turned against the divine goal and become a dark angel. As long as I can keep her convinced of this your father will be safe.”
Dialle peered at my father through narrow, suspicious eyes. “If she is up to no good why don’t you just take your wife down? Have you no spine for justice when it involves your own family, Seraphim?”
Oh, oh, I thought, them’s fightin’ words!
Myra took a threatening step toward Dialle and he stiffened, looking ready to do battle if necessary. But my father placed a gentle, restraining hand on his sister’s arm and she relaxed fractionally.
She didn’t bother though to soften the look in her icy blue gaze, which promised trouble for a certain devil prince if he didn’t mind his Ps and Qs.
My father gave Dialle a sad smile. “Unfortunately I resigned myself to the need to manage Danika years ago, Your Highness but in this she will help me meet a greater purpose, though she does so unwittingly.”
I felt like a spectator at a fast-paced game of whippit. My head was swiveling so fast between the combatants I was starting to get tendonitis in my neck. But the worst part was that I could only understand about half of what they were saying.
I threw a look at Myra but she was too focused on Dialle to notice me. I was reduced to praying that my questions would be answered in the conversation.
But apparently my prayers were to be ignored.
Suddenly both angels tensed and their eyes drifted upward, their thoughts most obviously going inward.
My father stood. “We must go.”
Dialle took a step forward but Myra’s cold blue gaze stopped him. “Know this dark royal.” She pointed a long, elegant finger in my direction. “If this child be harmed in any way you will know such devastation in your ranks that it will take you centuries to recover. She is not an actor in this play.”
Then she and my father were just…gone.
Dialle cursed and turned angry eyes to me. Emo, who had remained silent throughout the discourse between the angels and Dialle, stood up now and moved to stand in front of me.
Feeling suddenly frustrated by everybody’s assumption that I was some delicate flower that needed to be protected, I stood up and pushed Emo to the side. “He isn’t going to hurt me, Emo.” Funny I felt that way now since a mere forty hours ago I was running from him in fear of my life.
The Tweener psyche is a strange and fickle thing.
Dialle favored me with a long, slow perusal that heated my blood. “My argument is not with Astra, Tweener.”
Reminding Emo that he was not full royal was perhaps not the smartest thing Dialle could have done at that moment. Emo pulled himself up to his full six-foot-three-inch height and vibrated with power and anger. A truly frightening mix.
“You have a strange way of showing her that you mea
n her no harm, royal.”
“On the contrary, Tweener, it is you who threatens her in the name of friendship. Which is why I was forced to save her from you a mere hour ago in that clearing.”
Emo had the good grace to look embarrassed. “I was not in control of my actions.”
“Exactly.” Dialle’s indictment was clear.
Emo shrugged and said something that surprised us all. “You’re right, Dialle. I endangered Astra by allowing myself to be bespelled. It will not happen again.” His gorgeous golden face was dark with anger, only this time it was anger at himself.
Dialle stared hard at him for a long moment, apparently searching for signs of insincerity in Emo’s aspect. Apparently finding none, he gave a small nod. “At last we find common ground, Tweener.”
Emo’s lips tightened but he said nothing.
“Okay, now that we know who pisses the furthest, can we get on with finding out what the Hades is going on?”
Dialle gave me a long, slow, mischievous grin. “I have not heard an acknowledgement that I won that particular contest, lovely Astra.”
I stared at him for a few beats and then said, “Shall I tell Emo your greatest fear, Dialle?” I shuffled his mental drawers and added, Redeep in my best frog imitation.
He paled noticeably but, to his credit, the grin widened. “You win, Astra. I’ll be a good devil.”
Emo looked from one to the other of us, a new spark in his eye that told me he’d be relentless in trying to find out what I’d threatened Dialle with.
“I’m glad that’s settled. Now, Dialle, fill me in on the half of that conversation that I didn’t understand.”
Dialle shrugged and lowered himself to the divan, crossing one leg over the other ankle to knee, man style and throwing one arm over the back of the divan in casual indifference. “I cannot be entirely sure, Astra. But, as the humans say, reading between the lines, something is apparently going on in the Big House that He can’t fix himself. He’s sent your father and aunt out to handle it. Somehow your father is using your mother’s antics to his advantage.”
