by Lara Adrian
Nahiri hissed at the whispered insult. Furious, she struggled against their hold on her.
“Enough.” The censure spoken from atop the stairs was curt, severe.
In the answering silence, Nahiri glanced at the other temple Blades for signs of support. Not one of the solemn gazes would meet her eyes. It was as if they all knew where she’d been, what she’d done…and with whom.
It was as if they all shared the gray-eyed Blade’s assessment of her.
Did the Three as well?
She squared her shoulders and lifted her face toward the obscuring screen above. “Your Graces,” she said, refusing to show any fear or shame. “What is the meaning of my return, if not to take my place again here in the temple? Why bring me back?”
“You are a Blade, Nahiri.” Simple statement, no affection or forgiveness in the tone or the words. “A shame you forgot that fact so quickly under the thrall of the demon from Gravori House.”
“I wasn’t under his thrall,” she replied. “Anything I’ve done was of my own volition. And never once did I forget that I am a Blade. Devlin Gravori was able to look past what I Can any of you say the same now? Can anyone here see me beyond what my station was here in this temple, or the shame you think I’ve brought to it?”
“You’ve proven yourself weak, Nahiri,” said another of the Three. “But you’re also young, and for that reason, we’ve decided to be lenient. We will make a place for you in the Harem—”
“What?” She recoiled at the idea, vigorously shaking her head. The gray-eyed Blade tightened her grip on Nahiri, forcing her arm to a painful angle behind her back. “No. You can’t do that. I won’t go.”
“You will, Nahiri. Even if we have to place you under lock and key.”
She couldn’t believe this. She refused to accept that she might be sent somewhere for other Incubi to touch her, lie with her. There was only one man’s touch she wanted now, and if he didn’t want her, she could never give herself to anyone else. Panic and outrage seeped into her veins. “You would banish me to the Harem simply because I made love with Devlin Gravori?”
“No, Nahiri. Because you’re carrying his child.”
Distantly, she heard the wave of gasps travel the High Chamber. Even Valina appeared stunned by the revelation.
No one was more shocked than Nahiri.
Could it possibly be true? The idea astonished her. She knew an instant flood of emotion in that moment. Elation. Wonderment. Sadness for the thought that Dev hadn’t really wanted her, that he’d been intending to send her back to the temple himself.
And she felt confusion too.
“How can you possibly know something like that?” she asked the Three. “If it’s true, it can’t have happened more than a few hours ago.”
There was only silence for a while, then one of the priestesses replied, “We always know the instant there’s a demon seed planted in a woman’s womb.”
“It’s all part of the balance,” another added.
“Our divine duty,” said the third.
As they spoke, a new kind of dread began to take shape inside Nahiri. Something was very wrong about what they were saying. “What do you mean, it’s your divine duty? What have you been doing?”
“You will go to the Harem,” one of them said. “You will have your child there, then we’ll decide what to do with you.”
“No.” Nahiri snarled with anger. “I refuse to accept this. You can’t force me into the Harem, and I won’t let you have any say about my baby.”
“We can send you to the Oubliette instead.”
The threat slammed into her like a physical blow. Their arrogance sickened her now. “Dev was right about you. You’re far from holy. All your talk of balance is a farce.”
Behind her, the gray-eyed Blade wrenched Nahiri’s arm almost to the brink of breaking. She cried out with the pain, then went very still as the cold edge of an obsidian dagger came to rest meaningfully under her chin.
Nahiri didn’t struggle. She wouldn’t fight now, if only for the sake of her unborn child.
“Take her away,” one of the Three commanded. “Lock her in the cloisters to await transport to the Harem.”
“With pleasure,” the gray-eyed Blade hissed near Nahiri’s ear.
“Not you, Terah,” the priestess added. “You stay. Valina will go in your place.”
Nahiri watched her old rival step forward to carry out the order. The blond met her gaze only for an instant, pity and some other, unreadable expression in her solemn stare.
“This way,” Valina murmured.
The other dark Blade shoved Nahiri into motion, taking her out of the High Chamber under the scornful glances of her former friends and peers.
~ ~ ~
The hours it took to make the flight to the desert were pure agony for Dev.
Too mad with concern for the woman who meant the world to him, he had no patience for the drive that would take him into the mountain valley where the temple was hidden. Instead, as soon as the private jet touched down and came to a halt on the crude tarmac, he leapt out of his seat and tore open the exit door.
He glanced back at the Incubi who’d accompanied him on this quest. “If I’m not back in an hour, leave.”
“Like hell we will,” Naell said.
The rest of his brothers—Arionn, Bannor, even Zaban—all nodded their agreement.
Ram stepped forward with half a dozen Watchmen behind him. “If you’re not back in an hour, we’re coming in after you and we’ll tear the bloody temple down.”
He appreciated the support. However, if he ran into trouble he couldn’t resolve with brute force or demon magic, then the last thing he wanted was his kin to come under fire.
And if he managed to get into the temple and find Nahiri, only to have her reject him?
He didn’t want to consider that possibility.
Because he didn’t trust himself to let her have that choice.
He loved her, and come hell or high water, he was bringing her home.
Dev nodded grimly at the other men, then dematerialized.
Moments later, he was standing the temple’s High Chamber.
The room was quiet, empty but for the pair of Blades posted at the base of the broad stairs.
Nahiri wasn’t one of them.
The blond Nephilim who’d been there the day he first intruded on the Three was. She’d been promoted apparently, during Nahiri’s brief absence. The new captain of the temple guards went a bit pale as soon as her eyes lit on him.
Then she charged forward on a throaty war cry, drawing her obsidian daggers at the same time. Her second, a brunette, followed right behind her.
Dev blasted the pair with his power.
They slowed, expressions muting from flashing fury to melting arousal. The lower guard dropped her blades in a clatter and started fondling her small breasts over the linen tunic she wore.
The blond was struggling to withstand his allure too, but she had little fight in her when Dev charged forward and wrestled her knives out of her hands. He locked her head under his arm.
“Where is Nahiri?” he growled against the Nephilim’s ear. “What have they done with her?”
The Blade panted, her pretty face slack with forced desire. “You don’t want her. You can have me.”
“Tell me,” he seethed.
“The Harem,” she murmured.
Dev’s chest went suddenly cold, hollow with dread. “When? Damn it, how long has she been gone?”
“Not yet,” the blond slurred thickly. Drunk with lust, she reached up to pet his cheek, but he flinched away from her touch on a growl. “She’s not gone there yet, but soon…because of the baby.”
The Nephilim wasn’t making sense now. Was it possible he’d addled her mind when he enthralled her and the other temple Blade?
“What baby?” he demanded. “What the hell are you talking about?”
The blond smiled up at him, the kind of smile that would turn any other man
into putty in her hands. Any man but him. There was only one woman capable of doing that to Dev now.
“Didn’t you know?” she asked. “The Three know. They’re not very pleased with Nahiri right now.” The Nephilim looked at him, her gaze drunken from his power, unfocused. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial, husky whisper. “She’s having the devil’s baby. Devil Gravori’s.”
Dev went numb.
It couldn’t be true…could it?
They’d made love only today. Just hours ago.
And he’d been so out of control, reckless enough to spill his seed in Nahiri. There was a part of him that couldn’t regret that, even though she wasn’t his. He couldn’t regret any of the time they’d had together, except for the fact that it had been far too brief.
Did he dare believe what this lust-drunk Nephilim was telling him? Could Nahiri actually be carrying his child after just one time together? And if she were, how was it that the Three were already aware of it?
He didn’t have time to try and figure out how any of that was possible right now.
All that mattered was Nahiri. He wasn’t leaving without her.
“Take me to her. Quickly,” he commanded the blond Blade.
She brought him out the back of the temple, to the cloisters where the Blades apparently lived. In the back of the long barracks was a locked door.
A windowless cell, he realized as they approached.
His senses came alive with outrage—and the certainty that Nahiri was trapped inside the dismal place. “Open it.”
The blond took out a key and twisted it in the heavy iron lock. It fell open, and it was all Dev could do not to shove the other Nephilim aside as he lunged to open the door.
“Nahiri.”
She sat on the dirt floor in the darkness, her arms wrapped around her knees. Her head had been drooped down toward her breast, but it came up the instant she heard his voice.
Hope flashed across her face, then her expression settled into a wary uncertainty.
“My love,” he said, two strides carrying him to her.
She cried out, a muffled, wordless sound of relief as he pulled her into his arms and held her close. She felt so good in his arms. Warm and strong, and, blessedly, all his.
“Dev,” she whispered against his chest. “I didn’t think you’d come. Naell told me you were going to send me back to the temple, so I didn’t think I mattered—”
He silenced her with a fierce, desperate kiss. He drew back, framing her beautiful face in a tender grasp. “You’re all that matters. You are everything to me, Nahiri.”
Her choked cry was full of joy and relief. Her dark eyes were filled with so much affection—so much love—he could hardly breathe for the sight of it.
“Dev, there’s something you need to know…”
“Do you love me?”
“Yes,” she answered, no hesitation at all. “I love you, Devlin Gravori.”
“Then that’s all I need to know right now.”
He kissed her again, then swung his attention back to the blond Nephilim slumped against the doorjamb. Her gaze was still heavy-lidded, the female still fully under his thrall.
“Go now. Tell the Three that I came to claim what they owed me,” he growled. “If they come after this woman or anyone else in my family, they will answer to me. And there will be no mercy for them.”
As she nodded and pivoted around to leave them, Dev wrapped Nahiri in his arms. He pressed his mouth to hers, summoning the demon magic that would teleport them to freedom. The energy swirled around them. “Are you ready to fly with me again, little angel?”
“Yes.” Nahiri’s smile lit him up like nothing else could. “Take me out of here, Dev. Take me home.”
CHAPTER TEN
Nahiri lay naked in Dev’s decadent bed, enjoying the feel of him stretched out alongside her as they both floated back down to Earth after a soaring orgasm.
They’d been home for two days, everything that happened at the temple seeming like nothing more than a bad dream.
Home.
Nahiri was slowly getting used to the idea that this villa and island citadel was her home. She was a member of this Incubi House now. This was now her big, raucous family. Her brightly colored, passionate, incredible new life.
And Dev, her demon lover.
Her mate.
The father of the tiny miracle growing inside her.
She’d never imagined having all of these gifts, least of all Dev and the baby they would have nine months from now.
Now she couldn’t dream she’d ever need anything more.
It would weigh on her forever that her happiness with Dev had come on the heels of such terrible violence and death. Nahiri had made it her personal mission to make sure Marius’s young son never felt alone. She and Dev couldn’t replace Kai’s father, but between the two of them and the rest of the Gravori clan, the boy would always have the care and attention of family who loved him.
As would her baby.
She sighed softly as Dev caressed the flat plane of her belly. He’d been infinitely tender with her each time since they’d returned from the temple, making love to her slowly, patiently, as though she might break.
Honestly, it was driving her to the brink of madness.
She reached up and took his head in her hands, pulling him down for a deep, sensual kiss.
He grunted in surprise, but it took no convincing at all for him to let her tongue sweep inside his mouth to tangle with his. He chuckled as she maneuvered him underneath her and climbed on top to straddle his nakedness. He moaned thickly, his cock jerking against her wet heat when she positioned her cleft over his length, then sank down to the hilt.
“Ah, shit. Nahiri, don’t,” he croaked, holding on to her hips as she began a deep, relentless rhythm. “We should be careful—”
“We’ll have plenty of time to be careful.” She rocked against him, building her tempo. “Right now, I want to fly.”
“Fuck yes,” he murmured, his citrine eyes locked on her in pure need.
She felt his demon energy wreathing her as she rode him harder, mercilessly. For all the pleasure she took being Devlin Gravori’s lover, knowing it was her passion alone that sustained this powerful Incubus Master made their sex even more explosive and consuming.
And when they both eventually came this time, their combined shouts of release shook the thick timbers of the bedroom.
Dev rolled her over and kissed her breathless. His cock nudged her hip, ready for another round already. He grinned. “You might regret giving me permission to do my worst, little Blade.”
She laughed, gazing up into his loving eyes. “Your worst is the best.”
As they kissed again, a knock sounded on the door. Dev growled, pulling her toward him. “Go away. I’m making love to my mate.”
“I’m sorry, Dev.” Arionn’s voice, edged with apprehension. “There’s a woman downstairs. A Nephilim. She’s asking to see you and Nahiri.”
They scrambled out of bed without words, dressing hastily, neither one of them daring to guess at what might have arrived on their doorstep.
Nahiri hurried down the hall with Dev, then froze at the top of the stairwell. She was astonished to see the familiar face so far away from the High Chamber. “Valina.”
“I didn’t know where else to go,” the Blade murmured.
Nahiri and Dev went down together to meet her. “You left the temple.”
She nodded. “I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t serve the Three anymore. Not after what I learned.”
“What happened?” Dev’s voice was level, but Nahiri could sense her mate’s dread.
“After you were gone, I went to deliver your message to the Three.” Valina glanced from Dev to Nahiri, clearly upset. “They were meeting with Terah—”
“The Blade who came to take me back to the temple,” Nahiri explained to Dev. “The one who threatened Kai with her dagger.”
Valina nodded. “It was Terah who killed Ma
rius and his lover. And the Three knew. They issued the order.”
Dev’s answering curse was violent, lethal. Arionn’s was equally profane, and the conversation taking place in the foyer of the villa drew the rest of the Gravori brothers and half of the Watchmen as well.
“You’re certain the Three did this?” Dev asked, fury in every word. “They ordered my brother’s murder?”
“Not your brother’s,” Valina said. “That was Terah’s doing. That was her overstep. The Three executed her for it.”
Dev frowned, but it was another brother who spoke now—dark-haired Zaban. “If Marius wasn’t the intended target of the assassination, then—”
“The human woman?” Dev asked.
Valina nodded. “She was pregnant…with Marius’s baby.”
“Impossible,” Naell interjected. “There hasn’t been a human/Incubus pregnancy for centuries—”
“Because the Three haven’t allowed it,” Nahiri murmured. It was all making sense to her now. The killings, their odd admissions to her before they condemned her to the Harem. “They always know the instant a demon seed is planted in a woman’s womb. That’s what they said.”
“And it’s their divine duty to keep the balance,” Valina added grimly. “They’ve been killing them, Nahiri. They’ve been making sure no child is ever born to a human and an Incubus.”
“How far has this corruption seeped?” Arionn mused darkly.
One of the other Gravori brothers guessed, “Maybe all the way up to the Obsidian Throne.”
Nahiri felt a chill sweep over her as she looked at Valina’s worried gaze and the sober, dangerous faces of the Gravori men.
With Dev and his Incubi kin, she’d found a slice of happiness—the truest sense of peace and belonging she’d ever known—but it was clear that the strife between their two worlds was far from over.
Dev pulled her close, under the strong shelter of his arm. “If this proves to be fact, if the Sovereign and those around him turn out to be conspirators and killers, then let them be warned—the war that’s coming to them from this House and the seven others still remaining will shake the gates of both Heaven and Hell.”
