by Lacey Savage
Heidi’s scream made no sound, but Luke’s cry crashed like an exploding roar through the chamber.
“I promised myself I’d kill your little slut in front of you,” Baal said to Varin, advancing so he stood beneath the man’s limp body. “So you’ll live, until she draws her last breath. When that happens, her soul will burn for all eternity in the darkest pit of Hell, alongside yours. What you’ve experienced so far over the centuries has been nothing compared to the eternal darkness that awaits you both.” Baal’s cackle sent a chill of pure ice down Heidi’s spine. “I hope mortal passion was worth it, because you’re about to pay the ultimate price.”
Varin’s lips moved as though in slow motion. Heidi didn’t dare breathe. She watched him mouth only one word.
Anchor.
Blood roared in Heidi’s head. Her fingers shook. She couldn’t make out much through tear-filled eyes. Desperately, she grabbed on to the chain binding her nipples. Shock careened through her at the realization that she could grasp it between her ethereal fingers.
She wasted no time unclasping it away from her breast. In a mad dash of fury, her hand shot out. She attached the clamp to Luke’s left nipple, murmuring the magical words Lillian had taught her all the while.
The portal blazed with a blinding white light. Heidi closed her eyes, lurched sideways, then hurled herself through the portal.
This time, there was no comforting darkness. Just pure, white, judgmental light to guide her home.
Chapter Six
Heidi’s soul landed back into her body with a thump that knocked the air from her lungs. Pain blossomed through her back and slithered down her spine, into her legs. Her right nipple burned with an intense pain that made her cry out.
The pressure subsided a split second before a heavy weight dropped down on top of her. She blinked her eyes open, squinting against the light flooding the clearing.
Golden hair, tangled and matted, slid against her chest. A pair of piercing blue eyes gazed at her from beneath thick bangs that fell over a broad forehead.
“Luke. Oh, Goddess. Luke!”
She clutched him to her savagely, protectively, as though afraid he’d disappear if she loosened her ferocious grip. For his part, he grabbed her just as ruthlessly and they clung on to one another as seconds stretched into minutes.
Heidi buried her nose in his hair and inhaled deeply. Not a shred of demon scent on him. Luke smelled as deliciously male as he’d had the first time she’d been with him, trapped inside a dark coffin. She remembered his scent, slightly spicy and infinitely arousing. She thought it was perhaps the most wonderful aroma in the entire world.
Second perhaps only to the musky smell of reformed demon. A pang of sorrow pierced her heart as an image of Varin’s body slammed against the ceiling flickered through her mind.
Sometimes, it was better not to remember, she thought as she pressed a soft kiss to Luke’s temple. And other times, memories were the best recourse for revenge.
“He’s gone, isn’t he?” Luke whispered. His voice reverberated against Heidi’s chest. He’d dropped his head to nestle on her breasts, unwilling to meet her eyes.
“If he’s survived all these centuries, Varin’s tougher than you think.”
Heidi gasped at the sound of Lillian’s voice and struggled to sit up. Luke obliged her, drawing her beside him on the stone altar into a sitting position, one leg draped across his lap. He held on to her waist and her knee, pulling her body flush with his.
“He gave me this, you know.” Lillian ran the tip of her index finger around Heidi’s nipple, scraping the golden clamp that bound the tight nub.
Heidi winced as a flicker of pain shot into her breast. She followed the motion of Lillian’s fingers, watching her trail them between Heidi and Luke. The chain bound them physically, but the ties that truly chained them together ran much deeper than that.
“Centuries ago,” Lillian continued, “when I was captured and brought to the Underworld. It had belonged to my mother. Varin thought it would brighten my sprits to have it, even though mortal objects were forbidden in the Underworld. To be honest, I think he just liked the way it looked.” A ghost of a smile touched her bloodless lips.
It was then that Heidi noticed how exhausted Lillian appeared. Dark circles plumped the delicate skin beneath her eyes and her finely sculpted features looked haggard and drawn. She was still naked, but blood ran down from a gash in her side to pool in the grass at her feet.
“You knew him, then,” Heidi said. She grabbed Luke’s hand, tightening her fingers around his.
Lillian nodded. “I hated him. More than you can ever imagine.”
“Why?” The word was a mere whisper as it slipped from Heidi’s lips.
“I needed someone to hate. He was the only one who spent any time with me, and all my anger at being ripped away from my family’s arms was channeled into him. I would have destroyed him, killed him with my bare hands if I could have.”
“You did worse than that,” Luke said. “You condemned him to a life of torture.”
A glimmer of anger flashed in Lillian’s blue eyes. “It was no less than the life he’d condemned me to lead.”
“Maybe so, but he’s no longer the demon you once knew. Varin sacrificed himself for me.” Heidi swallowed past the lump in her throat and blinked back the sting of tears. “For us. And he’s done it twice now.”
Lillian’s square-tipped nail skimmed the surface of the gold chain one more time before her hand fell away. She stepped back, letting Heidi get a good look at the clearing for the first time since she’d tumbled back into the mortal realm.
“Was it worth it?” Lillian asked, sweeping her hand to indicate the blood that glistened wetly in the sunlight. “Two of our sisters died because of you.” There was no accusation in her tone, no hatred. Just sheer exhaustion.
Heidi squeezed Luke’s hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I never meant for anyone to get hurt.”
“You’ll go after him again, won’t you?” Lillian asked as though Heidi hadn’t spoken.
“Yes,” Luke answered without a moment’s hesitation. “He belongs here. With us.”
“When the demons fell back through the portal, I knew you’d done something,” Lillian said, her gaze fixed firmly on Heidi. “I asked the Summoners to take their fallen and injured sisters and get out of here as quickly as possible, before the horde returned.”
Heidi opened her mouth to protest, but Lillian stopped her with a sweep of her hand. “Make no mistake about it. What you’ve unleashed is personal. Baal will never stop until he has you both back in his grip. And he’s not going to care how many people he kills in the process. You’ve unsettled the balance between good and evil. You’ve given darkness a way into our world and a reason to be here.”
Heidi clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent a sob from escaping. She scraped her fingers through her hair, briefly taking note of the fact that the horns had disappeared.
“I can’t risk any more of my girls for your whims.” Lillian darted a glance from Heidi to Luke, then back again. “You have him. Take him and go. Hide him as best you can. Live out the rest of your days as peacefully as possible, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget about rescuing demons, redeemed or not.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. He looked ready to argue, but Heidi sank her nails into the flesh of his wrist, silencing him.
“Thank you,” Heidi said, meaning it. “For everything.”
She unsnapped the clamp from her breast, ignoring the blazing trail of heat that burrowed deep in her belly as the metal disengaged, then did the same to the clamp binding Luke’s nipple. She offered the chain to Lillian, but the woman closed her hand over Heidi’s outstretched palm, folding her fingers over the trinket.
“I knew Varin would recognize this and know what it meant. He was the only one who could get you out of there if things went bad. When bad turned to worse, Varin did for you what he couldn’t do for me. He released you.�
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“He didn’t know you were miserable,” Luke said. “He loved you.”
Hearing the words sent a spear of jealousy to lance through Heidi’s heart. She struggled to push it aside, knowing whatever had been between Varin and Lillian was over centuries ago.
“Maybe,” Lillian said. “But holding me prisoner in Hell wasn’t the way to prove it.”
“He paid for his mistakes repeatedly since then. Isn’t that enough?”
Lillian’s sad smile broadened. “Perhaps it is. For you. My duty is to destroy every demon who crosses into our world.”
“Even redeemed demons?” Luke asked, his voice catching on the last word.
“We’ll see,” Lillian said, turning away. “We’ll see.”
Heidi watched her disappear into the trees. Sunlight streamed down through the vivid green foliage, glistening grotesquely off the crimson blood that stained the grass and seeped into the dew-moistened earth.
Heidi turned away. She refused to wonder which of her friends had died that night because of her. It would be hard enough to live with the knowledge that she’d been responsible for two deaths. She didn’t think she could cope if she knew who’d been among the fallen.
Luke dropped down from the altar. He held Heidi’s hand and waited until she was ready to join him. With one last glance at the spot where the portal had shimmered earlier that night, Heidi sank her toes into the pristine grass that bordered the altar. It had been protected from the battle by a sphere of defensive magic, which had guarded her inert body as she’d slipped into Hell.
They left the clearing hand in hand, heading in the direction of the parking lot. The farther away from the clearing they got, the more Heidi’s tense muscles relaxed. She paused for a moment and drew a deep breath into her lungs. It smelled of fresh air and sexy male spice, with only a hint of coppery blood to spoil the heady miasma.
“Baal’s keeping him alive,” Heidi said as they walked toward her red Acura.
The car was parked at the far edge of the lot. To get to it, they had to stroll past half a dozen other vehicles, including one whose owner -- an elderly lady with snow-white hair -- gaped and crossed herself from the safety of her station wagon as they passed.
“How do you know?”
She touched the faint scar on her shoulder. It shimmered and churned, sending a rivulet of sultry agitation to coil into her stomach. “I can feel him. Baal intends to keep the promise he made.”
“To kill you in front of Varin.” Luke tightened his grip on her hand. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Nor me,” she assured him. “But it’s our only guarantee that Varin will be alive when we go back for him.”
“You said Baal would send demons after us, and your friend seemed to confirm that. Think we can handle them on our own?”
Heidi sighed. “With any luck, we won’t have to.”
She clicked the latch of her trunk open, thankful she’d had the presence of mind to leave the doors unlocked. She’d been in such a hurry the night before that she’d only bothered to turn the key to the off position in the ignition before bolting for the clearing where the Summoners were preparing to open a portal to Luke and Varin.
She pulled two blankets from among a stack of boxes that contained everything she owned. She’d emptied out her apartment earlier that week, knowing she probably wouldn’t be coming back.
Unfolding one of the blankets, she shook it out and draped it over Luke’s shoulders, then pulled him to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, enveloping them both in the warmth of the blanket and his body heat.
“Thank you,” he murmured against her mouth.
“For what?”
“For being as damned stubborn as you are beautiful. For coming back for us.” He swept the tip of his tongue between her lips. She sighed and opened to him, sliding her tongue against his.
The kiss was slow and sensual, yet filled with an abundance of frustration and worry. It sizzled just beneath the surface, reminding them that although they had each other, Varin was alone.
Luke’s cock hardened, nudging her lower belly. “What do we do now?”
Heidi frowned, leaning her forehead against Luke’s. The blend of loving acceptance she found in Luke’s arms and the lingering misery she felt at being separated from Varin seemed to tear her heart in two.
“We find a way to save him.”
“No doubt,” Luke said. His stiff shaft pulsed against her skin. “And until then?”
A void as black as tar flashed across the sky in the direction of the clearing. It hovered against the pale blue, darkening the sun’s rays for only a moment before fizzling out.
Heidi’s blood ran cold. A moment was plenty of time for a couple of demons, maybe even more, to pour through.
She pulled herself away from Luke’s comforting embrace. Tossing the other blanket over her own shoulders, Heidi climbed in behind the wheel of her car. After murmuring a word of gratitude at finding the key still in the ignition where she’d left it, she revved up the engine.
Luke got in beside her and slammed the door closed. Heidi floored the gas.
“We run.”
Lacey Savage
Award-winning author Lacey Savage loves to write about her dreams -- or more specifically, she loves to breathe life into her steamy fantasies (and she’s got plenty!). She pens erotic tales of true love and mythical destiny, peopled with strong alpha heroes and feisty heroines. A hopeless romantic, Lacey loves writing about the intimate, sensual side of relationships. She currently resides in Ottawa, Canada, with her loving husband and their mischievous cat. You can learn more about Lacey by visiting her website at http://www.laceysavage.com, and can reach her at [email protected].
