Moving like honey over ice, he slid the collar of my dress down just a little farther, exposing only the tops of my breasts. My nipples hardened, my breasts swelling and straining against the fabric. I’d told myself I’d never let him seduce me, but right now, I didn’t really care. I just wanted him to keep touching me.
His mouth moved lower, heating my skin, his tongue now swirling around my nipple. I wanted his mouth on mine.
“Adonis,” I moaned.
He was drawing this out, stirring me to a peak of desire until I forgot how words worked.
Another slow tug at the top of my dress, this time a little more forceful as he kissed me deeply. He pulled down the front of my dress until my breasts slipped out. Adonis let out a low growl, his eyes raking over my body. He was still keeping a leash on himself, still restrained, and the kisses he brushed over my breasts were agonizingly light, even as his hands grew more possessive on my body.
I moaned, rubbing my hips into him. Of course Adonis would turn pleasure into a strange sort of torture, until my mind and body screamed for him.
It was at this point I realized that his wings had appeared again behind him. I ran my fingertips over the feathers at the apex, and his muscles tightened. Now, he pulled down the front of my dress roughly, practically ripping it. A hint of teeth on my breasts, an exquisite torture. Another growl from deep within his throat.
I whispered his name.
He reached my mouth, pressing his lips against mine in a searing kiss. I moaned into his mouth, my tongue brushing his.
“Yes, Ruby?” His voice was a low, deep sigh.
I tried to find the words to tell him what I wanted, about the desperate ache that had spread through my body.
He reached down, his fingertips circling around to my inner thigh. As he traced upward, raw desire throbbed in my core. I stroked his wings again, and his body tensed against me, fingers gripping my thigh more possessively before releasing it again.
I couldn’t take the teasing anymore—I wanted him to move faster. I pulled off my dress entirely, and the cool castle air kissed my skin. I wanted him to look at me—all of me—and I let my knee fall open in an invitation. For a moment, he leaned back, staring at me, torchlight dancing over the powerful planes of his torso. His potent magic licked at my body, caressing parts of me that burned to be touched.
Just as I was sure he was about to unleash the restraints he’d been keeping on himself, a sharp, piercing cry ripped through the air in the distance.
A reptilian cry.
The warlike scream of a full-sized dragon.
And all the heat warming my body chilled to ice.
Chapter 31
Within moments, alarms were sounding within the Louvre, and I had my dress back on. The voices of the cherubs penetrated the door, chanting in unison about a dragon.
Of all the things we’d anticipated—archangels from the Heavenly Host, the descent of the other horsemen—I hadn’t expected dragons to attack.
Adonis was out of the bed in a flash, already pulling on his clothes. “I need to find out what’s happening.”
“I’m coming with you.” My heart was still pounding hard now, but for a different reason.
Gods below. Talk about a bad moment to interrupt.
I grabbed my boots from the floor.
Maybe the interruption was for the best, anyway. Adonis wouldn’t be on earth for much longer. What was the point in falling into his seductive trap now, when he had to go? I zipped up my boots, trying to think clearly. Adonis and I agreed firmly on one point—angels didn’t belong here. Nothing could happen between us.
Adonis pulled open the door, his sword slung around his back, and I hurried after him. Cherubs bustled through the hallway, and among their eerie whispers, I heard a few words repeated: Dragon... Jardin des Tuileries... Succubus.
I swallowed hard. Dragon. Succubus. Hazel?
Adonis strode quickly through the hall, and I hurried to keep up. When we reached the entrance, Aereus was standing in the center of an atrium, his wings and body glowing with golden light. Like Adonis, he’d dressed for battle.
“Any idea what’s going on?” I asked.
Aereus’s eyes burned with gold and red fire as he spoke to me. “Any idea why your sister has come to join us?
When the large, oak doors groaned open, I was greeted by a sight I didn’t think I’d ever forget—my younger sister, mounted on a golden-scaled dragon whose wings shimmered in the silver light of the moon.
Hazel gripped the dragon’s neck, her dark hair tumbling over her shoulders. A flush brightened her cheeks, and her eyes sparkled.
I stared at the dragon, my mind swarming with unwelcome memories. A dragon—clamping Marcus in its jaws, its teeth piercing his flesh, ripping him to shreds. Blood streamed over the pavement… My chest clenched, until I took a slow, steady breath.
Hazel flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Adonis. Ruby. I hope you don’t mind the interruption.”
Aereus stepped forward, his body towering over me. “No one told me you were coming.”
Emitting a deep rumble, the golden dragon lowered his head, and Hazel slid off.
My heart thudded hard. Please tell me she had some kind of plan here, that she hadn’t just shown up on a dragon for the hell of it.
As soon as she slipped off the dragon’s neck, the beast began to shift, with a snapping of bones and sinews that pierced the night air, until a man stood before us, his large body covered in gold armor. I shuddered, still repulsed by dragon shifters.
“Hazel,” said Adonis. “You’ve come as a messenger, haven’t you? To give us news about Johnny and Kratos.”
Hazel crossed to us, her gaze on Aereus, features totally placid. “Exactly. I remained in Hotemet Castle, and Adonis told me I was supposed to let him know if Johnny or Kratos seemed as if they were going to fall.” The night air whipped at her dark hair. “They’ve started to change, I think.”
“Change how?” Aereus demanded.
She blinked at him, her features serene, and I knew she was about to enchant him. “They look different, like when you’re staring at the water’s warm surface on a hot summer day, and the lake looks black as iron, and the steam wafts off it, and you think you can see your past in it, you think you can see your mom’s face, right? And you remember how sometimes she made you so mad but you couldn’t do anything about it, and the steam curls around you. All those times you wanted things but you couldn’t have them. And that’s how you know the angels are going to fall, that their heavy, leaden wings are pulling them to the earth. That’s why you need me here, Aereus. To fix things.”
Aereus stared at her, his fiery eyes glazed over. “I see. Yes...” He blinked. “I can see why you’d think they were falling. I’m glad you’ve come to warn us.”
She looked back at the starry sky. “You might want to set up some of your creepy cherubs to watch the clouds in case they show up anytime soon.”
Aereus nodded dumbly.
Apparently, this little teenage fae was capable of manipulating one of the most lethal creatures to ever walk the earth’s surface, and it didn’t even seem to take much effort on her part.
“It flickers in and out,” she added with a slight shrug. “Sometimes they get control of themselves. I just thought you should know.”
Aereus beckoned her closer to him. “Another succubus. No wonder Kratos has been unable to control himself.”
Mentally, a war raged in my mind. She’s sixteen, you creep. Back the fuck off. But we were supposed to be ancient.
Adonis shot me a pointed look—no doubt he could feel my roiling anger. “Thank you for letting us know, Hazel. Now, you must be tired after your journey. You can sleep in our room.”
Aereus’s lip curled. “Oh, that’s how it is, is it? One succubus isn’t enough for you?”
Adonis’s icy gaze slid to the horseman of war, but he said nothing.
Gross. Still, I could see why Adonis had made the suggestion. Hazel
had obviously come here for a reason, and we needed to know what it was. We needed to speak with her alone. Now.
Aereus glared at Adonis, his magic tingeing the air around him with gold. “Sleep for a few hours. But in the morning, we must make a move against the other horsemen. We’ll drag their imperiled souls here and pierce their bodies until they see the truth again. Until they once more understand that we must give up the temptations of the flesh in order to rule as gods on earth.”
Adonis’s eyes sparked with a cold light, shadows shifting and darkening around him. “Horsemen were born to make sacrifices.” A hint of regret suffused his words, and I knew that he believed it, even if the rest of this was a sham.
Aereus’s lip curled. “Kratos will feel his sacrifices in his flesh.”
I swallowed hard, thinking of Kratos. Our ruse would never get that far, so I shouldn’t be worrying about it. But the idea of this maniacal horseman of war torturing Kratos with his iron instruments made me feel sick.
Adonis nodded. “In the morning, then,” he said quietly. He strode back into the palace, his night-dark magic trailing behind him. He moved swiftly, with the gait of a soldier, his footfalls clacking over the floor.
On the walk back to our room, the cherubs eyed Hazel, whispering among themselves. I bit down hard on the impulse to turn to Hazel, to demand to know what the hell was going on right now. At last, we reached our door, and I shoved it open.
Hazel plopped herself down on the bed, surveying the rumpled sheets. “You both sleep in this? Cozy.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. “Hazel. What are you doing here? You just… You summoned a dragon?”
She flicked her hair behind her shoulders. “Uthyr? I was one of his favorites. Like I said. I charmed them.” She lifted the pendant from her neck—a dragon’s tooth. “Remember? Uthyr gave me this to summon him if I ever really needed him.”
Adonis leaned against a wall, his arms folded. “What’s been happening at Hotemet Castle?”
Hazel sucked in a deep breath, and my stomach clenched. She hadn’t come with good news.
“Johnny has slowly recovered his memories,” she said. “He knows Ruby tried to kill him. He knows that she’s not really a succubus, which means he knows I’m not really a succubus. Hence, I had to get the fuck out of there. What else? Oh yeah. He’s on his way here to kill you.”
My jaw dropped. “And what about Kratos?”
She screwed her mouth to one side, eyes narrowing as she thought about it for a moment. “I’m not entirely sure what his plan is, but he was angry enough to go on a bit of a rampage. He started breaking things and lighting things on fire. I befuddled them just long enough so that I could get out of there, but it wasn’t a great situation, per se.”
Shimmering, midnight magic burst from Adonis’s body, and his wings emerged behind him, spreading out. “Did they follow you, Hazel?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. If they’d been anywhere nearby, Uthyr would have smelled them.”
Adonis snatched his sword, Ninkasi, from beside the bed.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
The air around us hummed with his magic, making my pulse race. “I’m going to search for them, and I’ll stop them if they’re on their way. I need to find out if they’re coming for you. While I’m gone, find Tanit and Kur. Tell them what’s going on. Tell them I’ll be back as soon as I know anything.”
I didn’t want him to leave, for some reason, but I just said, “Come back to us soon.”
He was out the door without another word.
Chapter 32
When he left, Hazel dropped down on our bed, exhausted.
I started to pace the stone floor. “Did you hear anything about their plans?”
She shook her head. “Something about archangels. Heavenly something.”
A chill rippled through my blood. “The Heavenly Host?”
She pointed at me. “That’s it. Johnny wanted to speak to them. To tell them Adonis was rebelling.”
Even if that injured angel hadn’t made it back to the Heavenly Host, Johnny could drag them here at any moment to destroy me.
I clenched my fists. “Did Kratos try to stop him?”
“Why do you think Kratos would want to stop Johnny? I think they’re on the same side.”
My chest tightened. “I don’t know. He’s a psychopath, yes. He left me stranded there after dragons ripped Marcus to shreds.” The memory pierced my chest. “But then he did a kind thing for us. He brought you back to me.”
She scrunched up her features. “Huh? Kratos?”
“Yes, Kratos. I told him I was looking for my sister, and he sent out a search party for a succubus in the dragon lairs. He didn’t stop until he found you.”
Her brow furrowed. “No, that’s not what happened. First of all, do you know how much effort it takes an archangel like them to find anyone they want?”
I crossed my arms, wearing the floor thin with my pacing. “Not really, no.”
“It took Adonis a few hours to find me. He’s the one who turned up in the dragon’s lair. When he did, he sent word to Hotemet Castle to say I was coming. Apparently Kratos took credit for it.”
Surprise knocked the wind out of me. “Adonis reunited us?” I shook my head. “He never told me. Kratos didn’t specifically tell me that he’d found you, but he certainly implied it.”
“Oh. I thought you knew.”
When I cast my mind back to Hotemet Castle, I remembered telling Adonis about Hazel, that I wanted her back. Adonis had said Kratos would never find her for me—that he’d want to keep me dependent on him. The next morning, my sister had been found. And it had been Adonis’s doing.
For most of the time I’d known him, I’d been positive Adonis only ever acted for self-interested reasons. He’d done nothing to convince me otherwise, never mentioned that he’d been the one to find Hazel. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one playing a part, pretending to be someone I wasn’t.
My heart thudded hard, and I tried to focus on the problem at hand. Now, we had two potential problems headed our way: two horsemen, and the Heavenly Host. Still no gleaming blue gemstones.
I crossed to the bed and slid my hand under my pillow, snatching my knife and the holster. I slipped the sheathed knife into my boot. “Okay. First things first. I need to find Tanit and Kur and tell them what’s going on.”
“And what is going on? What’s our plan? Run? Hide?”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know. Maybe I can speak to Aereus again. Find out what he knows.”
“We have a dragon. I can take you anywhere you want. We could leave now, let the archangels sort all this out between them, and we charm whoever wins.”
I scowled at her. “I’m not leaving without Adonis. And anyway. It’s like you said. An archangel can find us if they want to.”
With my arms folded, I continued my pacing in Tanit’s room while the two demons stared at me.
Tanit’s dark hair snaked around her head. “So the Heavenly Host know that you’re the Bringer of Light, but they don’t necessarily know that Adonis is working with you. He could be oblivious, for all they know.”
“I think so.”
Tanit cocked her head at Kur. “We could simply hand the fae over, if we must. We could say that we found her out, and Adonis had no idea, and the archangels can do with her what they like.”
I paused, glaring at her. “I’m right here, you know. I can hear you.”
She looked between Kur and me, reading our expressions. “What? I’m not saying it’s a good idea. I’m just saying it’s an option. We should consider all options. That’s what brainstorming is, right?”
Kur shot her a sharp look. “Let’s not sacrifice the little fae just yet. I have a feeling Adonis may not be thrilled about that particular option.”
I bit my lip, desperation building in my system. “I’m going to talk to Aereus again. I’m going to see if I can get him to drop any kind of information ab
out the stones, whatever it takes.” A quiet panic had begun to race through my veins. I’d torture the bastard on his own instruments if I had to. “At least give me a few more hours before you throw me to the wolves.”
“Be careful!” Kur called out as I yanked open the door.
I walked through the stone halls, closing my eyes and trying to tune in to the Old Gods around me. As a Bringer of Light, would I be able to sense the stones? I ran my fingertips over the stone walls, inhaling deeply. A faint smell of roses tinged the air, the bloom of Devil’s Bane... Was that them?
I followed the lure of roses until the smell of roasting meat began to overpower me, and a primal violence churned in my gut. That meant only one thing. Aereus.
When I opened my eyes again, I found him towering over me, his eyes blazing with flames. His fire-tipped wings spread out behind him.
“Ruby,” he growled. “A little black crow just delivered the most interesting message to me.” He grabbed me by the ribs, lifting me from the ground, and his fingers tightened over my bones. “He tells me you’re the Bringer of Light. Tell me. Does Adonis know?”
Sweet earthly gods, Hazel needed to get out of here. Fast.
Hot rage—Aereus’s magic—sparked through my nerves. I wanted his revolting hands off of me. For just a moment, I envisioned my thumbs plunging into his eye sockets, blinding him.
“No. Adonis doesn’t know,” I managed to say evenly.
With a roar, he yanked me from the wall, then threw me through an open doorway. I landed hard on the stone floor, and pain shot through my bones.
From my prone position on the floor, I flicked my tongue over my lengthening canines, blood roaring in my ears. I couldn’t let my feral instincts take over completely or I’d never find out what I needed to know.
The sound of a slamming door echoed off the walls.
Aereus stood above me, staring down, and his immense body blazed with fiery light. “No one will hear you scream in here. Your friends won’t be able to find you.”
Black Ops Fae Page 18
