The demon was a mercenary, willing to sacrifice anyone and anything in its quest for ultimate power. Paying the necromancer was only one sacrifice, there were more in line for the future as its campaign for King of Shadows lengthened into ruler of hell, dominator of the mortal plane, supreme leader of...everything.
More and more, Kian found his actions to automatically slide toward those of the demon. What he said and did was demon to the core, and he hated himself every time he opened his mouth and said something vulgar to the woman he loved, the brother he respected. He would hate himself for this for centuries, the pillaging of his virgin queen, but it was all so natural when the demon pulled his strings and made him dance and sing like a puppet in the hands of a psychopath.
As if on cue, the demon tapped him on the shoulder. Hurry up.
Kian pulled his fingers away, watched Allianna’s spine tense, the muscles locking from shoulders to thighs. Cock in hand, he dragged the tip through the oil slicking her pussy and notched the crown against her pucker. “I’ve heard it is advisable to relax and breathe, little rose.”
Itzel began the chant, calling dark magic into the room. The tone was darker, more fitting for this level of intimacy, and shadows clung to Kian’s naked form like serpents. One by one, they sought the source of his pleasure, twining around Allianna, laying over her like a blanket. Seeking their queen to offer her solace.
Interesting.
“I’ll remind you of that,” Allianna shot back, his little rose’s thorns bristling.
Kian gave her ass a quick pat and squeezed her hips, braced for her wrath. He wasn’t gentle, driving into her with a hard jerk of his hips, followed by another and another. The taboo channel resisted at first, as emphasized by Allianna’s broken howls, adamant he was not allowed to be there.
Kian was adamant he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“You can orgasm like this, little rose, if you stop fighting.” His words incited a riot in the keening female beneath him, sending her spiraling into a flurry of useless twists and bucks that only urged his cock deeper. “I do love your spirit.”
Sweat pooled on her oiled flesh. A beautiful flush stained her skin from her nape down over her shoulders and back, turning her into the living embodiment of his precious rose as he encouraged her to bloom to her full and exceptional potential.
His shoulders tightened as the first twinges of orgasm shuddered like a rolling boulder down his spine. Too soon, much too fucking soon when he was enjoying the delights of a virginal ass he’d waited so damn long to claim, but the feel of her muscles all but wrenching his cock off and the thrum of ancient magic was demanding spectacular release.
Hammering into her with ungodly strokes, balls tingling and heavy, Kian made sure she knew who owned her. No matter who took her now, whether Islador accepted the Lord’s offer or not, she would remember the first time Kian staked his territory on her ass and know she belonged only to him.
“I want my name on your lips when you come,” he ordered with a beastly grunt. “When I fill you with my seed and feel you shudder around my cock, I want my name on your goddamn lips, little rose.”
One stroke and he joined them completely, snarling as he bent over her back with the force of his ejaculation. “Say my name, Allianna.”
Her eyes, the blue aflame yet damp with the tears that pooled on the slab, flicked to his. The fight was gone, extinguished, and she didn’t so much as twitch a muscle as he kissed the back of her neck, licked lovingly, hips jerking with the last moments of his orgasm.
One broken whisper followed the silence that began when the chanting ended.
“Islador.”
*
Funny how she was the one betrayed, yet her captor exuded hurt, Alli thought absently. There wasn’t much room for thoughts, not when her body and head staged a war between one another. But she knew she’d sliced at the man under the motherfucking demon by speaking another’s name.
Excellent.
Wrists and ankles burned, slick with blood and raw wounds from the cuffs. Her hips were bruised, her ass was...she didn’t want to think about that. The mental tally she was listing of her injuries, both inside and out, was impressive, and would mirror the consequences Kian was going to pay when destiny stepped up to the plate.
The heavy weight of Kian laid over her back, pinning her. She didn’t have the energy to struggle hard enough to get him off her, and she was aware there was the biggest test of her mental strength yet to come. So she stayed limp, unresponsive. He’d given up licking and nuzzling at her, and Alli was glad. That was how she’d always imagined Kian being after sex, under completely different circumstances. For him to offer that comfort now? It was a fucking insult.
“Allianna. Little rose.”
“Fuck you, Kian. Just fuck you.”
“Oh come now, don’t be that way. Just one more thing to do, little rose, and you and I will be unstoppable. King of Shadows with my incredible queen by my side.” Fingers gently tugged wisps of her hair away from her cheek.
“And your son in the belly of the bitch,” Alli sneered.
The demon huffed out a breath. “I don’t have the patience to listen to your sniveling right now. Seeing as you broke my host’s heart by uttering another man’s name, the two of you can cry together until I’m ready to finish the ritual.”
No. No, not that. Dealing with the crassness and brutality of the demon was one thing. It boosted her resolve to end this farce. Facing the compassion of the Kian she loved would scatter her focus and weaken her. “I don’t want to talk to either of you.”
But it was too late. Strong arms slipped beneath her, held her as she longed to be held, and she felt his love for her pour over her like a balm. Real love, the kind she kept hidden in her heart for him. Because the demon didn’t deserve it, would never appreciate it, and so she protected it and herself by keeping it away from tarnished hands.
“Allianna, baby. Did we hurt you, little rose?”
“Kian.” It was a mournful whisper. “I need you to go away.”
“I can’t, Allianna. Even when he’s in control, I’m always here with you.” He sounded as broken as she felt, regret pumping off him in waves. “If I’d known this would happen when I made the deal for your life, if I had any idea he would turn me into this...I would have sent you back to your father.”
Confusion clouded her thoughts. “My father, the archangel? But that means...you would have had to...”
Kian’s lips branded her shoulder. “I would have killed you to spare you this.”
Twenty-five years of life with him, she thought, could have been extinguished before she lived it. Was that a regret or a relief? There were memories of whirling around on his shoulders as she squealed, of Islador and Kian playing hide-and-seek with her. The first time she’d seen him sparring with his Second, both their chests gleaming with sweat, muscles rippling, and her hormones on overdrive as her eyes followed their every deadly move.
Flicking peas across the table because Kian was being an overbearing ass, sneaking her first glass of wine from the depths of the shadows in his cellar. Getting lost in the caverns when she was eight years old, trapped among strange creatures and writhing shadows, and being swept into powerful arms that cuddled her so close she could feel his heart pounding with fear.
“This is what you kept me for, Kian. Marriage, children, power.”
“Not like this, Allianna. Believe me, not like this. This is...cruel. This is never something I wished for you, for us.” Kian sighed and laid his cheek against her back. “He’s going to come back in a minute, little rose. He’s already impatient. I love you, Allianna. I swear one day I’ll make this right.”
This was her chance, she thought desperately. Her heart wept and clutched his words into its embrace, but her brain worked on overtime. She needed an advantage, and this was it. “Make it right now, Kian. Do something for me.”
“Anything, little rose. You know I’d do anything for you.”
&nb
sp; Allianna closed her eyes and hoped he would forgive her. “I don’t want to go through the last of this hell bound and chained to an altar, Kian. I want...I want...” Fuck, her voice cracked hard enough to steal the words. “I want to look into your eyes and imagine it’s you and me, even though it’s not. I want to feel you under my hands and hope you can feel me too. Tell him I won’t fight, I won’t struggle. I’ll submit as long as he doesn’t tie me down and takes me on my back.”
“That would not be advisable,” Itzel interjected with a little irritated hiss.
“No one asked the opinion of a demonic baby-eating bitch,” Alli snapped back, wishing she could tear the three-eyed monster limb from skeletal limb, starting with those horrible eyes. “Stay out of it.”
Kian sighed and nuzzled her hair. He kissed a spot beneath her ear that sent shivers running down her spine in delight. “I’ll tell him, Allianna. If he agrees, don’t break your promise. Do not anger him. Behave yourself and you will be treated well.”
“Thank you. Kian, I—” She stopped talking, sensing the change wash over him. The easy comfort she felt in his presence dissipated, leaving anxious energy smeared over her like a dirty oil slick on her skin.
“How astute of you, little rose,” the demon breathed in her ear. “Sorry to break up your romantic reunion but, you know, things to do, pussies to fuck, wombs to impregnate.”
Allianna swallowed hard.
“It appears you have a request for me, thorny little rose. Well, more specifically Kian with a heart, but I find it agreeable. Although I should warn you,” he growled menacingly and pushed himself away from her, ripping a yelp from her throat as he disengaged roughly, “abuse my generosity, Allianna, and I will snap your neck in just the right spot for you to still live and carry the brat I need. You’ll spend the rest of your life paralyzed and useless.”
His tone brooked no argument. He was one fuck away from his strategy tumbling neatly into place, and he wouldn’t tolerate a wrench kicking it off track now. So she nodded meekly, answered with a timid, “Yes, my Lord, I understand.”
“My Lord,” Itzel said grimly, “it poses too great a risk.”
“It’s a simple request to grant, Itzel, and one easily, easily revoked. Allianna has been a good girl so far, this will be her reward for pleasing behavior.” Kian strutted away and Alli watched him in her peripheral vision as he took an offered cloth from the necromancer and drowned it in oil.
With quick, firm twists of his hand, he used the cloth to wash his cock and bring it back to a swift and proud erection. Almost like he was polishing it, his prized entry for the county fair virgin defiling contest. A contest he would win hands down.
The necromancer murmured something; Kian shook his head and his eyes roamed over Allianna’s body with a faint red gleam. The demon was lurking just beneath the surface, possibly the closest Alli had ever seen it come. However much of an asshole Kian had become under the demon’s possession, his eyes had always been his special green.
She tried to accept it as a sign that this was the time, the place, where the beginning of the end came to life. She was still working on acceptance when her demon lover sauntered back to her, whistling a jaunty tune under his breath, and undid her restraints with deft flicks of his fingers, leaving her legs until last.
Still whistling, Kian inspected her tender flesh and gave her a swift, stinging slap on the ass before he rolled her onto her back and stepped between her spread thighs. “Last time for tonight, little rose, so we better make it a good one. If there’s no baby cooking in this flat little oven tomorrow,” he warned with a pat on her belly, “we’ll just have to do this again. Itzel will check, so don’t think I won’t know.”
Alli made her hands relax by her sides, palms flat to the stone. Shaking beyond her control, she could only watch him titillate his erection as the fucking chanting began yet again. Another set of runes lit up the wall, a different cadence to the necromancer’s tone. Richer, blacker magic in the air.
Blood magic.
Virgin blood.
Her blood.
Breath huffing in and out of her nose at a frantic rate, she couldn’t slow it down. Big, calloused hands ran down the insides of her thighs, pushed them further apart. She closed her eyes when Kian notched his cockhead against her and brought Islador to mind. Focused on him and him alone.
“Scream for me, little rose. Tell the Almighty you welcome this union.”
Like the sweet, willing queen she’d offered to be, Allianna obeyed. She screamed for him when he worked himself inside her with a several sharp thrusts, she screamed for him when he laughed so darkly her soul shivered in fear. Again and again, she gave him what he desired as her body silently echoed the sound from within.
There was blood, she could smell it. Too much for only her hymen to be gone. Agony sweet enough to make her mind waver on the verge of unconscious, to forget the monster rutting madly on top of her, panting and growling her name as he laughed. Agony that swelled as her body flopped weakly beneath him, in shock to such a degree it held no substance.
She heard the oddest sound as Kian thrust deep and held still, and she prayed time had flown past so quickly in this horrifying hell that he was already at his climax. But the sound grew in strength and pitch as pain and pressure seemed to detonate in her lower stomach.
A high, keening whimper that never stopped.
“Thought you wanted to see my eyes, little rose?” he taunted as something threatened to give way inside her. “Open them, watch me as I make you a queen, Allianna.”
Digging deep for the last scraps of her courage, Alli blinked them open and almost recoiled in disgust. There was no green, no Kian left in those eyes. Just eyes as red as the ones watching from across the room, focused on her with unholy glee.
“I’ve been told this part hurts,” Kian said with a wink, and she barely refrained from slugging him. “But once the first few minutes pass, some find it quite pleasing. You’ll be done not long after that.”
She felt her face contort a second before the pain sharpened, spiked. No woman, demon or other, could survive this level of pain. It was inhumane, unnatural, and her body begged her to end it with her life or his as payment. She arched, something snapped inside her with a pop, and then the pressure eked higher up into her belly.
Running out of time, Allianna ran trembling hands up his biceps, feeling the strain of the weight he held above her. She choked down a sob as he moved, fucking her with ferocious thrusts, shattering her with every wicked lunge of his hips. It hurt more knowing he understood her pain and didn’t care.
Her legs twined around his hips, her heels locking against his ass, and caged him in. That pleased him, though she didn’t care. Her priorities were clear, and the state of her body held no meaning now. The pain she couldn’t block, she would use.
She caressed his head, running her fingers through his short hair lovingly. Part of her hoped the real Kian felt the love in the gesture, a pitiful attempt at asking forgiveness.
Itzel’s chanting hit peak, Kian’s body hammered home and as he bellowed in obscene pleasure, Allianna struck.
Fingernails bit into his scalp and she used her waning strength to keep him looking at her. Red eyes flared wide with shock and bewilderment as she slammed open the hidden link between them and stormed into the demon’s mind.
As his seed spurted into her like hellfire, Allianna raged through his memories, gaining deeper access than she ever had before. The last time she’d been in here, she hadn’t had the physical connection to empower her explorations, and the mind she’d fallen into had been a disconcerting mix of Kian and demon.
Now, she was in the fires of hell, learning in seconds how the bastard had developed from larvae to fully-grown male, how he had used his mother to gain access to the Lord of Shadows and slowly but surely taken over Kian as the years passed by.
She whipped through his intentions, siphoning off what she needed back into her own memory banks. She stole section
s of life from him, things she could use to manipulate his weaknesses. She learned how to kill him, and broke her own heart with the knowledge that Kian likely wouldn’t survive.
From her mouth, she chanted words as Itzel spirited them in her ear, sealing the marriage of half-angel to demon and Allianna’s fate with it. Death was their duty, their fate, and everyone around them would suffer.
Moving quickly, realizing she was struggling to contain the demon in her thrall, she accessed the more mystical side of his brain. Like a pickpocket, she dug through his magic pockets and hit the fucking jackpot.
She heard Kian repeating the words she’d just spoken from far away, and without thinking she broke eye contact, severed the internal connection, and sank her teeth into his shoulder with savage intent, marking him with the mating bite he’d been so eager to adorn her with.
“Fucking bitch!”
For a moment she was airborne, weightless, painless, and wondered with pathetic hope if she was dead. A second later, she wished she was. Her back cracked into the chamber wall and agony detonated like a bomb. Coughing, she saw with detached interest the fine mist of red spray erupt from her mouth and cover her nakedness.
Fighting to breathe, she slumped on the floor and chuckled. Blood and cum pooled between her legs, forming rivulets on the stone. Her eyes flicked up to the demons in front of her, one still cloaked in the hood and the other inhabiting the stolen body of the man she loved.
Kian vibrated with fury, his hands clamped on his head and eyes wild with shock and pain. He bared his teeth, eyes flickering between red and green, before his gaze landed on her. He stepped toward her, his body gleaming with sweat, his cock streaked with the fluids he’d torn from her.
“Don’t. Any further physical damage and she might not sssurvive.” Itzel set a restraining hand on his arm and was viciously shrugged off.
Allianna laughed, blood dribbling from her mouth this time. “Listen to mommy, Antzel. Mommy knows best, doesn’t she?” She coughed again, faintly concerned with just how much blood she was losing from too many places. “Itzel and Antzel, mommy demon and her b-baby boy. How fucking cute.”
King Of Shadows: The Shadowcrown Duet Page 10
