Madison elevated her eyebrows at the silent offer she suspected in his words. She nodded at Nix. “But he can touch me?”
Micah flicked his tongue along his teeth. His relaxed body language didn’t prepare her for his statement. “I can make sacrifices for your pleasure. I’ll enjoy watching him get you off.”
Holy cow! Could anything stun her more? Or sicken her more?
She gave the skull pendant one last squeeze and rose to her feet.
One twisted blood-soaked threesome was all either of them would receive from her.
“No…no…no!” She struck Micah twice in the chest with all her strength. Like smacking a brick wall, her palm protested her reckless action with a dull ache. “In case you don’t understand old fashioned American English, you’ll understand Xapil. Li!” she screamed the final word.
Breathing hard, she glared between them. They watched her as she opened and closed her right hand, figuring the way it throbbed she’d bruised the bone.
Momma?
Air surged from her lungs at the hesitant word.
Amos? She whipped around in the direction she thought his voice emerged and slipped on blood. She hit the floor. The squishy flooring softened her fall as it writhed in affliction beneath her.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Zen watched as Petra touched Amos and shook her head. “He’s walking through Hell. The landscape….” She paused. “He just exited the Field of Bones.”
“Momma!” Amos bolted to his feet.
Zen snapped his fingers in Amos’s face, but he didn’t react. Petra maintained her hold on his hand.
“He’s found her. She’s with Daddy and Phoenix. They’re all three covered in blood.” The group responded with gasps. “Not their blood, but the blood of Phoenix’s victims.” Zoe groaned and Georgie discharged a nervous glance in Zen’s direction. “Keep moving, Amos. Daddy can’t lock on you if you keep moving. You’ve found her and you can stay locked on her now.”
He needed to see how far Madison had progressed. Zen touched Petra’s shoulder so he could tap into her psyche, and found an impenetrable wall. “Drop your shields, Petra.”
“I have none up. Amos has erected it.”
Disbelief shivered up Zen’s spine. The boy learned to maneuver magic much too fast for Zen’s peace of mind.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Micah swept the room with a quick inspection. “Where’d he go, Madison?”
“Who?” Having Amos’s soul nearby gave her hope. She spoke telepathically to him as fast as she could get the words out of her head. Send Alessa to bomb Hell with the marbles now.
“Amos,” Micah interrupted her silent communication.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I sensed him, too,” Nix argued.
Madison snapped a glare in Nix’s direction. “Maybe you were mistaken, Nix.”
Tell Alessa to work fast. As soon as she finishes distributing the marbles, I don’t care that I need Nix’s lucky charm, I want her out of Hell immediately. Tell her—
Her silent speak shattered off when Micah yanked her against his chest. “Where the fuck is he? I still feel him.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t lie.” Words spoken from clenched teeth, his eyes seethed his frustration.
Nix watched her like a man trying to understand the density of matter for the first time. “You’re lying, Mads.”
“Fuck you both.” She sent them mutinous glowers. She’d be a scapegoat, but not her son. “I won’t give you my son, Micah.”
Anger manifested like a tangible entity and skittered eerily along her skin. The fallen angel that emerged would offer no mercy, and could dole out torture like sundaes. “For five years you’ve done everything you can to keep our son from me, Madison.” His fingers curled around her shoulder and she cringed at the sting. “You’ll either call him back, or I’ll make a connection with him through you.”
“Like always, you’re giving me no choice in this?”
“None.”
Lynx went crazy mad, but Madison tamped her down. “So much for building trust, eh?”
“You’ve denied me communication with my son for five goddamn years!”
“I’ve denied you nothing! Amos did that all by himself.”
Demon eyes pulsed, warned she teetered on a surface so fragile, she’d be wise to proceed with caution.
“Don’t take his choices from him. He’ll revolt as you did against your father.”
Micah flinched as if she’d struck him. “Choices were never either of yours to claim.” Displeasure burned away the human blue of his eyes. Flamey King eyes regarded her now. He pushed her into Nix’s arms. “Hold her.”
“If you plan to harm her, I’ll be hard-pressed not to stop you.” Nix skimmed his palms up her arms and rested them on her shoulders. His breath hit her ear. She shivered.
“No, Phoenix. I could never harm her.” His voice remained soft, but held a tinge of regret. Regret of what?
“You have in the past.” Nix rubbed his cheek against her hair. “Choked her, slapped her, cut her with your claws. Even burned the back of her neck with your fingertips.” Nix licked those permanent burn marks on her nape and goose bumps scattered across her skin.
Why couldn’t she be immune to his touch?
Because he means more to you than a friend. Lynx would’ve nuzzled back if she’d allowed that side to surface.
“I’m not amused by your devil’s-advocate position.” Micah flicked Nix an irritated glance. He held her gaze as he responded to Nix. “Phoenix, you’re aware I implemented those actions because I love her.”
“Because terror tactics say I love you so much better than affection and chocolate,” Madison sneered.
“I left you chocolate when I departed on business trips.”
“Business trips to Hell, Micah!”
“They certainly weren’t legal trips, kitten.” Micah cupped her cheek. “I gave you affection and you shunned it. What else would you have had me do to prove my love and devotion to you?”
“I didn’t always shun your affection.” Madison took a deep breath and stepped into emotions she’d avoided since he’d walked out on her. She’d confess all if it’d save her son. “I yearned for your touch, Micah. I wanted to respond to you. I knew I disappointed you sexually. No woman wants that guilt weighting her shoulders.”
Daddy called her a whore for so long. She couldn’t forget it just because it wasn’t true. Words spoken from the lips of a dead man had haunted her, kept intimacy from her marriage. “I wanted to give you more, but I worried I would lose you if I did.” Her throat clogged with emotions. Baring her soul proved more painful than losing her virginity. “I kept expecting you to realize your mistake, to realize Daddy was right and I was the whore he always said I was. Unworthy, filthy, damaged goods undeserving of love from anyone. Especially not someone as freakin’ wonderful as you.”
His eyes altered back to blue as his thumb slid across her chin. His expression grew contemplative. “I had no idea you devalued yourself so much.”
“Every day I expected your rejection of our marriage. Worried you wouldn’t come home from work and thankful when you did. Why would a man like you come home to a sullied woman like me?” Madison dragged in a ragged breath. Nix’s fingers flicked along her neck. She ignored the warmth it ignited in her belly. “You had every ounce of my heart. I loved you so much it hurt to breathe. I would have followed you into Hell.”
Uneasy giving him this look inside her, she pushed onward with a quick breath. “That last night you took me, you were so sweet and I….” Unshed tears roughened her voice, and she swiped her fingers over her eyes. “I responded to you and I know you noticed, Micah.”
It’d been the first time during their marriage lubrication hadn’t been required.
“I noticed. I was thrilled, but something happened and you withdrew from me. You remained wet, but didn’t climax.
Your reaction was why I had to leave you.”
Tears spilled onto her cheeks, hot and moist. She let them fall. “If you’d just given me a little more time I could’ve been what you needed. It wasn’t you.” A sob tickled the back of her throat. She coughed. “Just before I came, I panicked. I was afraid you’d think me a whore like Daddy said. I couldn’t risk you looking at me with the same disgust. It would’ve crushed me.” After he released inside her, he’d been sweet, reminding her he loved her and would always be there for her. Made her promise him she would never forget it. She’d fallen asleep in his arms.
“I should’ve killed your father sooner.” Micah’s comment startled her out of the past.
Madison cleared her throat and dashed tears aside with her fingers. She took a hesitant step toward Micah, still unsure what he wanted from her. “You left me the next day, Micah. I knew your departure had something to do with the night before. Photographs of you flying to Reno…I imagined you went elsewhere to start a new life, create a new family. I was heartbroken. Devastated. I wouldn’t have survived your abandonment without Amos.”
Micah pulled her against him and embraced her tight, his affection transparent in the intensity of his cuddle. It was much like the way Nix always held her. It bothered her. Had she misunderstood her husband all this time? Had she devalued Nix’s emotions as well?
“I never abandoned you, kitten. I live and breathe for you, always for you. My brothers would have to bury me beneath Hell before I could be forced into neglecting you.”
Tears blurred her vision.
“The Azura stones already forewarned I must leave you if you didn’t respond.” Those were what Petra gave Amos. Not noticing her recognition of the word, Micah went on. “Leaving you and Amos was the hardest fucking action I ever executed.” His fingers smoothed against her nape. “I never abandoned you. I made sure all the criminal charges were dropped. Demons committed to protecting you and Amos watched you nonstop.”
“I had no idea.” She’d misunderstood everything.
“The violence against you when I returned was because you needed the push to follow your destiny. I despised slapping and choking you.”
He’d done those actions easily enough.
“But I wasn’t only there during your later years, Madison. I’ve always been there. As an infant, I nourished you with my blood. You thrived on it more so than Celeste’s.” He tilted her head back and dragged his fingertip down her throat. “I allowed you to initiate our first kiss to confirm your attraction to me. I told your mother to end Bruce’s verbal abuse or I’d crush him.”
“He stopped for a while, but when he started up again, he made sure he never did it around Mother.”
Micah’s eyes sparked with flames and his touch vibrated. “I wish I could kill him again. He wouldn’t receive the quick death I granted him. My only consolation is he discovered my plans before his demise.”
How could he talk so easily about causing a person’s death?
He ran a fingertip along her bottom lip. Desire spiked and she gulped back her confusing response, lowered her vision to his chest.
“Bruce feared you, kitten. I cannot condone his mental abuse, but at five you acted out much the way Amos did.”
A tiny gasp escaped. “I attacked and killed things?”
“Yes.” His hand lowered to curl around her neck and shoulder. “You also enthralled any male you came in contact with.” The corners of his eyes crinkled with a smile. “It was highly entertaining watching you work your charm. Celeste remained in a perpetual state of annoyance with me for allowing your behavior to continue. She feared the humans would take notice of your demonic ability. I took you off to the carnival that passed through town, stuffed you full of blood and cotton candy and attempted to explain why you shouldn’t be enthralling men. At least not yet. You didn’t listen, but tried to enthrall me. Smitten by your tactics, I dragged a half-hearted promise from you to behave, but the next week you worked your way through your father’s deacons.”
Micah flicked his thumb back and forth along her jugular. “Celeste summoned me again to wrangle you under control, and I had a hell of a time wiping the memories of some of those pious bastards. I threatened never to return if you disobeyed me again. That frightened you, but you managed to con me into visiting once a week for the next year. Upon my arrival, you’d leap into my arms, press your face against my neck and hug me tight. We’d leave and I’d give you more blood. After you were full, you would peer at me with those gorgeous baby blues and vow to marry me. I knew those words were a child’s promise, so I placed little value in it. When you hit puberty, you went after girls, too, and you still vowed to marry me.”
Stunned by these events, she struggled to wrap her brain around them. “Why don’t I remember any of this?”
“For your protection, I charmed you not to recall them, but not before you confessed to a family friend that a fallen angel made you stronger with his blood.” Micah’s hand ran down her arm and slid around her hip to rest against her lower back. He drew her against him and stared at her upturned face. “When I returned on Christmas morning of your fifteenth year, I hadn’t seen you in almost three years. Your reaction to me was immediate and I was immensely pleased. All of our subsequent visits proved you were the only one for me.”
The only one? “There were other children like me?”
“Yes and no.” He palmed her blood-matted hair and strangely, his touch comforted her. “My Genesis children were all different. None of them were crafted from Lynx. I had only enough in the Pyxis to gamble on one child. None of the other Genesis kids required my assistance to get them through life. That you required me immediately hinted at the level of power you’d one day wield. I visited them all after I saw you on Christmas morning. There was no spark between me and the other children, not even a vague awareness.”
Dear God. Micah hadn’t just planned her conception; he’d been involved in her entire life.
“Where are the other Genesis children now?”
“Dead.” She flinched and he ran the back of his knuckles along her cheek. “We can be good together.”
Madison blinked. Forget good. They would probably be stellar together. Just one problem: she cared about her son’s future. And she gave a damn about the world’s survival. An embittered fallen angel with daddy issues benefited no one.
If we accept his proposal to renew the marriage vow, I don’t know if there’ll be any coming back, Lynx admitted.
Is Nix worth the sacrifice? Madison asked her inner demon.
According to Zen, he is.
As if he understood she thought of him, Nix skimmed her arm with his fingers. She worked hard at ignoring his gesture.
“I want to remember everything, Micah.” She rotated her arm, exposing the sigil he’d burned into her flesh. “Our relationship begins anew, the way it should’ve been in the beginning, with no holding back. I want to know everything. Got it?”
Micah kissed the sigil on her wrist as Nix’s knuckles slid up and down her arm. Gooseflesh prickled her skin, but which man caused it?
“Got it loud and clear, kitten. My prior stance remains. Before I’ll agree to give you my seraph, you’ll commit yourself to me.”
Madison closed her eyes with a ragged sigh, uncertain if she was prepared to make such a sacrifice. After he left, she believed she would never trust Micah again, and swore nothing could bring her to bind herself to him once more. Not ever. But Nix…he was worth her fall.
“Mads, is this what you want?” The hesitation in Nix’s voice gave her hope for his salvation.
She gripped Nix’s hand, laced her fingers with his, and squeezed. Nix is worth my sacrifice. If those words needed to become her mantra to get through this, then she’d repeat them until she grew sick of the chant.
She took a deep breath, but it didn’t alleviate her nerves. Nauseating butterflies swirled in her belly. No, nothing so nice to upset her stomach, pterodactyls disrupted her equilibrium.
Madison released Nix’s hand. Instead of going out in a flame of glory, she feared caving to her husband’s devious whims. She cupped Micah’s face between her palms and damned herself to save Nix. “Micah Dominus, I commit my heart, body, and soul to you and our marriage. Everything I was, everything I am…is yours.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“Momma, no!” Amos screamed when Momma accepted Daddy’s offer.
More than a little stunned to discover Momma’s childhood held similarities to his, it gave him a better understanding of Daddy’s plan for them.
Daddy grinned at Momma’s vow and Amos blinked back tears. If Zen knew the promise she made, he’d kill her. He had to keep this to himself, but he couldn’t remain in Hell. Daddy’s angelic power would have an indeterminate effect on Momma, but Amos bet it wouldn’t be good.
He jerked his soul out of Hell and blinked as he re-entered his body. Next to him, Petra gasped and jumped from the sofa. She visibly shook as she stared at him.
“What happened?” Zen stood over them, his gaze intense and his body coiled for action.
Amos ignored his teacher and scanned the room until he located Alessa. “Momma wants you in Hell bombing it with the marbles. Await her commands afterward.”
Momma would need Alessa to get Nix out. No way would he tell her the rest of Momma’s message to leave Hell after throwing the marbles. Amos had no problems sacrificing a mortal woman for Momma or Nix. Maybe that exposed the demon inside him; maybe that showed how much he loved them both. His cold view of the world wasn’t an attribute Momma would praise, but he wouldn’t attempt to suppress it.
Zen stepped closer. “Did you locate Madison and Phoenix?”
“Yeah.” Amos fidgeted in his seat and hoped it came across as a casual shift of position. “Momma found Nix and sent Alessa’s message through me. They should be able to talk mentally when Alessa arrives.” He turned to Petra. “She needs to go now.”
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