Hell's Phoenix

by Gracen Miller

  Madison squealed instead of dragging in a hasty final breath, and buried her face in Nix’s chest as they submerged beneath the gory liquid. She shoved out of his arms and kicked against the squishy flooring. Surfacing, she sputtered blood out of her mouth, wiped it off her eyes, and squeezed it from her hair.

  “You’re so officially off my friends list, Phoenix Birmingham.” Her voice trembled.

  Nix laughed. Not the reaction she expected, but uncertain what she anticipated from him, she let his humor go.

  Micah joined them, descending into the pool by way of a set of stairs Madison couldn’t see. And she did not want to know what they were made of!

  The liquid swirled around her like an unnatural entity and an odd vibration hummed against her skin. Blood evaporated from her arms. Madison dragged in a shaky breath. The substance wasn’t evaporating, but rather, she saw her skin eagerly soaked it up.

  That cannot be good.

  Panic shot into overdrive and her temples pounded from the sudden surge of emotions. She scrambled to the edge of the pool and tried to climb out. One of the men pulled her back. She was unsure which one, but she ended up in Micah’s arms, his body aligned against hers.

  “The blood holds the energy of Phoenix’s victims, kitten.” Micah’s lips tickled her ear. “Your succubus is hurting from forced starvation.” His jaw slid down her throat. “I can feel your malnourishment and it makes me ache for you.”

  “No.” Madison shook her head and in desperation shoved out of his embrace. She fisted Nix’s shirt and pleaded with her eyes, praying he’d find the humanity he once possessed. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” Glimmers coalesced about his head and a quick scan about the room identified more popping up. Beneath the surface of her skin, she could feel her succubus begin to shift and stretch in wakefulness. “Get me out of this!”

  Nix stared at her, silent, as Micah spoke. “She remains.”

  Heart slamming against her ribs, her bare toes began to tingle, and she dashed for the edge of the tub again. Micah wrapped an arm around her waist, secured her against his chest, and dipped low enough to submerge her to the neck in the blood.

  He would force her succubus to the surface and she couldn’t stop his intentions. Tears blurred her vision as the tingle hit her belly and climbed upward.

  “Everything will be okay, baby.” Nix cupped her cheek and she didn’t question his sincerity.

  “Nothing will ever be okay again.” Her voice sounded off, like she’d been awakened from a deep sleep. And her succubus, after slumbering most of her life, was being aroused.

  Micah turned her and pressed her spine against the side of the pool. She concentrated on taking slow, shallow breaths, but it’d be ineffective in heading off her coming rebirth. Using a claw, Micah pierced a vein on his wrist. Black blood beaded to the surface and he held it beneath her nose.

  Madison couldn’t name one thing that smelled as good as his life force and the power it represented. Such a sweet scent, as intoxicating as chocolate ice cream. Closing her eyes, she resisted the gnawing urge to clamp her mouth on his wrist and suck him dry.

  I want more than his blood. Pandora startled her with her mild spoken comment.

  “You need it, kitten. If you deny yourself what you need, your succubus will demand another form of payment.” Madison’s lids snapped open. “I won’t complain about the other form of payment, but I’m guessing you would.”

  Why did he care what she wanted?

  “Sex?” Madison whispered, remembering what Petra said.

  “Yes.”

  Which was worse? Sex or blood? She cringed at the idea of sex with Micah. Sipping his blood was a very pleasurable idea to her dormant succubus. How much more would she alter by ingesting him? Too much would be the answer, maybe so much she’d pay with her soul.

  “We don’t do sugar in Hell, kitten.”

  “I hate you.” She shoved as much vehemence as she could into her shaky voice.

  “I know.” Micah held up his arm. He waited, watching her in silence, his wrist inches from her mouth. Why didn’t he just press it to her lips already? As if he could read her mind, he said, “You have to do it. I won’t have you screaming you were forced afterward.”

  She didn’t just hate him, she fucking hated him! Madison curled her fingers around his arm, took a deep breath and drew it toward her. The smell…she quivered in anticipation.

  Madison regarded Micah. He observed her with a heavy, hungry stare. Holding his gaze, she licked the bead of blood off his wrist. Together they groaned. One taste hit her harder than a jolt of liquor. She slammed her mouth over his arm and sucked so hard her teeth protested with a dull ache. This was her elixir, her cure all to life’s problems, found in the vein of her husband.

  She’d never been as gorgeous or as erotic as she was in this moment, ingesting his healing blood. Phoenix cupped the back of her head, supporting her neck or lending aid to her suckling, Micah couldn’t be sure what drove the man. What he recognized was the depth of emotion the other male felt.

  When Madison looked at Phoenix, the presence between them vibrated differently, like an invisible charge, but tangible against his neurons. Hot jealousy knotted his belly and it took all his willpower not to shift into angel and kill the Ark of Heaven. The man could teach him how to cajole Madison to his side. He’d won her over once before. He would do it again.

  But he couldn’t dismiss something differed between his prior relationship with Madison and the one she shared with Phoenix. Confused by what that represented, he just recognized that Madison responded to Phoenix in a way she never had to him. Why? He’d revered her since her birth. Protected her all her life, even if she hadn’t been aware of his influence.

  His cock twitched at the memory of her kissing Nix before entering the pool. Emotions riddled him, among them resentment, intrigue, confusion, and turned-the-fuck on. He wasn’t certain he could tolerate Phoenix banging her without seeking bloody recompense from the Ark of Heaven.

  Taking lessons from the Sherlock on how to bring his wife back to heel…the very idea galled him. But desperation drove him to contemplate almost anything to gain what he desired the most.

  A twinkle shifted against her throat and he dug the necklace from beneath her blood-weighted shirt. He recognized the soul signature immediately.

  “You wear a piece of our son.” Awed by the luminescent aura, he watched the power of their son’s soul vibrate against his palm.

  As she nursed on his wrist, bringing stings along his flesh, he sensed the weight of Madison’s stare. Every drag she took tweaked his cock. Soon, he planned to be thrusting between her thighs while she fed off his blood.

  He smiled, satisfied with Madison’s progression. “Our son. You belong with me, Madison. As does Amos.”

  She grunted and gave up his arm, licking her lips as she watched him.

  “Her eyes!” Phoenix exclaimed.

  Her pupils went burnt orange, the color of the Kings, and fitting for his Queen. Her irises shifted to a hot pink, which identified her as the rarest name of all succubi—Lynx. A unique and very powerful breed that not only fed through sexual encounters, but by consuming magical powers. Before Madison, only one Lynx had ever been created: God’s consort. She’d grown obsessed with gaining the alchemy of others and Father had struck her dead, but He hadn’t eradicated the substance she’d been crafted from. Micah killed numerous angels to get his hands on the substance needed to craft the Lynx DNA. Managing to steal the Pyxis containing it before he revolted against father’s grace was a chance of fate, and he’d waited thirty years to verify if he’d succeeded.

  “Beautiful, aren’t they? Lynx eyes.” Micah traced his thumb over one of her eyebrows, marveling at the exclusive shade, and shifted his hand to cup the back of her head. “They’ll become bolder when she fully amalgamates with her demon.”

  “What’s a Lynx?” Phoenix pinched her chin between his thumb and finger, and turned her head to peer at her.r />
  “Unique. Dangerous,” Madison responded, her voice scratchy. “Micah does nothing halfway.” She tugged her chin free of Nix’s grip.

  “Correct. Lynx succubi feed off sex and magical infusions. She’s one of a kind, no other in existence. She’ll require both to survive. The more wizardry she ingests, the more powerful she becomes. A Lynx demon can wipe out Hell with its need to consume, unless it has a consort powerful enough to feed it. Madison’s lucky I’m powerful enough to keep her fed.”

  “You bred me to be your consort?”

  He nodded.

  “My goodness. How far does your management of my life go?”

  He ignored her question for a brief history lesson. “The first Lynx was crafted by God. Father crushed her into oblivion because he was jealous of her ability to grow more powerful, while he could not.” He tucked hair behind her ear. “I stole the Pyxis full of God’s blueprints before I fell.”

  “What’s a Pick…sis?” Nix asked.

  “Pyxis…p-y-x-i-s,” Micah clarified. “It’s kind of like a genie bottle. This particular one was a glassy jail cell that shifts colors as the substances inside moved. It housed God’s most lethal, unique, and extinct species. Mainly those he never planned to use again because they were too dangerous. I created hybrids out of many of them in the container. Plague and Skeletal demons are crafted from the Pyxis. Hybrids are always more volatile than the original.”

  “I’m a hybrid?” Her pink tongue darted out and licked her lips.

  “Yes.”

  “But how? Mother is succubus and Daddy is human?”

  “Magic, kitten. Celeste enthralled your father, so I could feed Bruce my blood while he fucked her. She was already full of my blood and angel power—seraph by the way—and I fed the Pyxis into her womb as they created you. The rest is history.”

  Madison’s surprise over his revelations had her mouth parting, but only silence emerged. She shocked him when she grabbed his nape and tugged him close. “I want your seraph inside me like Nix had his in me at the Sherlock bar.”

  Startled by the request, Micah forgot to breathe or blink. “Nix’s power is called messian. It’s different.”

  “Don’t care. I want yours.”

  He inhaled the small puffs of her breath hitting his face. He’d never shared his angel seraph with anyone other than Celeste, but he’d known Madison would need his if she turned out to be Lynx.

  “Phoenix could only do that because you had an open wound.” Micah kneaded her nape. “I’ll need to cut you to give it to you.” She could take his seraph once she figured out how. He wouldn’t teach her how to take what she wanted until he’d gained her trust. They were a long way from that moment.

  Madison clutched the wrist she’d fed from and slapped his palm against her neck. “Use one of your claws to wound me. Wherever you chose. Just do it now, Micah, please now.” Her pelvis undulated against him and he resisted ripping her clothing off and thrusting inside her. Fast sex had been his mistake the first time he took her. He wouldn’t repeat it. “I’m so hungry.”

  “It’s an experience like you’ve never known.” Previously, when he ingested an angel’s force, it boosted and strengthened his power.

  “I almost climaxed from Nix’s.”

  Micah ground his teeth together. “There’s no guarantee how it’ll affect you. Are you prepared to become fully demonic?”

  She nipped his chin, surprising him with her playfulness. “Nix’s messian was so very, very, very good.” She ran her tongue across his jaw, and he slanted his head so she could continue down his neck to nuzzle at his collarbone. Releasing one button on his shirt, she kissed the exposed flesh before slanting her gaze upward. “Whose will be better? Yours or Nix’s?”

  Not an answer to the question he asked, but her attempt at seduction intrigued him.

  “One ‘very’ was enough, Madison.” As much as he disliked her enjoying anything from Phoenix, her wanton display fascinated him. Real or fabricated, it was unlike the woman he’d once shared a bed with.

  She grinned and the teasing gleam in her eyes rendered him spellbound. He’d have paid any fine to see that expression on her face after their marriage. The change in her was significant in the eight years since leaving her, and the differences enthralled him.

  A startled gasp fell from her lips and she jerked toward Phoenix. “Just like I do this very, very, very good, huh, Mads?”

  “Nix, no!” Madison released Micah and shoved her hands into the blood.

  Curious what occurred beneath the surface, Micah removed his hand from her neck and lowered it into the pool, while keeping his palm on the back of her head. He followed Phoenix’s arm and discovered the man’s hand buried inside her pants. Madison had Phoenix’s arm in a death clench.

  “Nix, this is wrong.” Her breath hitched and her bottom lip trembled, but Phoenix’s hand began to shift. A tiny whimper exited her lungs. “Jhim. Mqauja jhim.”

  Good thing Phoenix understood Xapil, or he’d never have understood her final sentence: ‘Stop. Please stop.’ But the undulation of her hips proved she wanted him to continue.

  Micah chuckled over the shift in languages, and he doubted she was aware she’d switched between them. Removing his hand from her head, he laced his fingers around her wrists. He pulled her arms up and out of the pool and placed them on the ledge behind her.

  Madison’s mouth parted on a soft moan and her head dropped back. The blood rolled, indicating the movement of her pelvis increased. “His fingers are inside you?”

  As an answer, she squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Not yet,” Phoenix said. “I’m teasing her clitoris with the lightest of strokes.”

  He kissed Phoenix and she made a shocked sound, proving she’d opened her eyes at some point. “Our woman,” he said to the Ark, who grinned and nodded.

  Micah turned to Madison. Was she surprised by their affection? He clasped her head and embraced her, dipping his tongue between her lips. Keeping his eyes open, he watched the shift of expressions flitter across her face. Resistance furrowed her brow, and melted into yearning, smoothing away the lines along her forehead.

  Micah parted from her mouth, and stared at her until her lashes fluttered upward. Up close, he held her stare and he muttered against her lips, “Penetrate her, Phoenix.”

  Her ragged sigh rent the air. A soul screamed in unison with her, beseeching mercy. Micah released her head and plunged his arms into the blood. The snap of her jeans gave way easily and he snagged the zipper down. As he shoved his hands into the backside of her pants, Phoenix tangled his fingers in her hair and turned her face toward him for a kiss she didn’t resist.

  Micah dragged the wet denim down her legs and grasped each ankle one at a time, to gently step her out of them. Caught up in Phoenix’s touch, she offered no protest.

  Leaving the jeans on the bottom of the flooring, he cupped her calves and ran his palms upward. He gripped the backs of her thighs and couldn’t miss the distinct movement of her hips rocking against the thrust of Phoenix’s fingers.

  For a moment, Micah watched them, one unending kiss, as Phoenix pleasured her beneath the surface. “My turn, Phoenix.”

  The Ark lifted his head and she reached out to pull him back to her. Phoenix groaned and kissed her hard, before tugging her head back by her hair and staring down at her sensual features. “Which part is your turn, Micah?”

  “Everything.” Phoenix shot a hard glare at Micah. “You’ll get your chance soon, lover. Do you continue to desire my angel power, Madison?”

  No response came from Madison. Head tilted back, her eyes were glazed with pleasure, soft about the edges, and lips moist from Nix’s kisses.

  “Do you still want Micah’s power, baby?” Phoenix asked.

  “Yes.” The word came out as the barest whisper.

  Micah nodded and he shifted her into his arms. She came willingly, but reluctance tainted her eyes and when Phoenix removed his fingers, she protested with a raspy, “L
i!” No.

  “You’re fucking beautiful, Madison,” Micah said.

  Madison clenched her fingers in his shirt. Pink Lynx eyes stared at him, desperation for release having turned her breath choppy. Her succubus needed one energy, while her Lynx demanded another.

  “Don’t let him stop.” She tugged against his shirt as if to emphasize her demand.

  Micah kissed her brow, shifting his hand down her left arm. He flattened his palm over the top of her hand, and turned hers palm-side up, exposing the underside of her wrist. “No other should be touching you while I give you my seraph.”

  “Please give it to me.”

  “I only give it to you as a renewal of our marriage vows. Do you accept or decline, Madison?”

  “It’s my choice?”

  “Yes.” Micah circled his thumb along the flesh of her wrist.

  He shifted his other hand to clutch her hip, keenly aware only a thin strip of silk separated him from touching her intimately.

  “That hand moves no closer to the inside of my legs.”

  The slightest tremble of her body hinted at her indecision.

  “You would allow Phoenix to touch you there, but not your husband?”

  “I trust Nix. He didn’t abandon me. You did.”

  How flawed her perception is. “I never abandoned you, Madison. I made sure the criminal and tax fraud investigations were dropped against you when I vanished. I have always been with you, on the sidelines, watching and protecting, waiting for you to become what you were meant to be.”

  “You could be lying.”

  “Ingest my seraph and you’ll know the truth of everything.” Consuming his angel spirit would grant her fragments of his soul, like memories, so lying to her would be impossible once she dined upon it. “All my preparation and plans will be revealed. How hard it was for me to leave you, but my departure was necessary for you to achieve your destiny.”

  “Mmmhmm…you enjoyed choking me and accosting me, Micah.”

  “Necessary evils to force you to follow destiny’s path. Never something I enjoyed.”

  “Sooo not buying that answer.” She glowered at him. “Your angel name will be revealed to me as well?”