Demon’s Seduction

by Lisa Renee Jones

  “Either you are here with me or you are not,” she said, her voice quavering with the words. “You have to decide, because I can’t take this, Darius.”

  His eyes darkened, red flickering in their depths as it often did. “You know it’s not that easy,” he argued, his voice low and full of warning. He was as aware as she was of Jag’s nearness.

  “I have never accepted that answer, and you know it,” she countered, her fingers twisting in his T-shirt, as she faced him fully and looked pleadingly into his eyes. “Please. Talk to Jag. Find a solution that doesn’t include you being damned to hell.” Her chest tightened. “I’m selfish, I know. I wish I wasn’t. But I don’t want you to leave me behind.”

  “Cathy,” he whispered hoarsely, his arms closing around her.

  “He won’t,” came Jag’s voice from behind. “Not if I have anything to do with it.”

  Cathy and Darius turned to face Jag, who stood closer than expected, only a foot away. “You’re far more transparent than you think you are,” Jag said softly, leveling a stare on Darius. “And since killing Talleous isn’t an option, why don’t we focus on making sure our plan to bind his powers works?”

  “And if it doesn’t?” Darius asked quietly, his voice as tight as a rubber band.

  “Then we’ll come up with another option,” Jag said. “Together.” He let the word linger in the air. “You are a Knight of White, Darius. It’s time to come home to that unity, and to the rules we are bound by. We never believed you would turn on us, and you’ve more than validated our trust. Now, trust us. We will do this together.”

  Cathy felt tears pierce her eyes, and they were not just her own. Darius might not be crying on the outside, but she could feel the emotions explode inside him. And when Darius kissed Cathy and departed for a talk with Jag, she knew he wasn’t going far. He’d come home and this time to stay.

  It was late that evening, near midnight, and Cathy was sitting on her plaid bedspread inside the ranch house, when she felt the rush of Darius’s magic wash over her. A second later, a light knock sounded on the door. She climbed off the bed and rushed to the door, yanking it open. He stood there, his arm on the trim above his head, long body stretched.

  “Come in,” she urged, her skin prickling with awareness. She wanted him so badly it hurt.

  “If I come in,” he said softly, “I won’t leave.”

  “I don’t want you to.”

  He grabbed her and pulled her to himself, still firmly planted outside the room. He was warm, hard, everything she needed and so much more. “I don’t want to leave, but I won’t risk losing control. Think about it, Cathy. If we mate, and Adrian and Talleous should somehow survive to remake that Black Line, it will take a demon and a human to destroy it. That means, I have to remain this much on the edge, this close to full-blooded demon, to have the ability to stop them.”

  “No,” she said. “No. You can’t. I can’t let you. I won’t let Adrian take you away.”

  He brushed the hair from her eyes, a gentle warrior, who touched her in so many ways. “He won’t,” Darius said. “He can’t. I’m stronger than I thought I was, and I have you to thank for that. Besides, the night we make our bond forever, I want this behind us, Cathy. I want to know you have made the choice to be with me, not because you want to save me, but because you want to be with me for the rest of your life.”

  “Darius…” Emotion thickened her words, and they slipped away. But it didn’t matter—because he kissed her, a long, sensual kiss that told a story of two people falling in love. And it was that kiss that turned a mating bond into a bond of the heart. No matter how this turned out—in that moment, they were forever.

  Chapter Eight

  With the high, full moon and twinkling stars speckling the sky, Darius walked across the Mexico Mountain terrain, Jag on one side of him, Cathy on the other, his hands balled by his sides, his magic pumping like blood through his veins. Not far behind them was a group of the Knights of White, ready to attack if the demons chose to start a war this night. But this would be a battle of magic, a battle that would not be fought with swords.

  They were headed for a confrontation. They had all known it the minute the magic trail had led them right back to the sinkhole that the dynamite had created during their previous visit. The location was a dare, a challenge, an invitation delivered by Adrian that said, come and get me.

  Everything inside Darius screamed with the protective need to leave Cathy out of this; she was his mate and, even more important, the woman he’d fallen in love with. But he knew, too, that Adrian expected only Darius and Cathy to answer his challenge, and it was likely Adrian assumed that, unmated, they would not be strong enough to defeat him and Talleous. But they’d come prepared to win this confrontation by bringing Jag along.

  As they neared the sinkhole, the air crackled with fire, and Adrian appeared, Talleous beside him. The contrast in the two striking: Adrian was tall and broad, a devastatingly dangerous sight in red leather; long sabers hung from his hips; and evil radiated from him like an electric hum. Talleous was short, plump, mid-thirties. He looked average, harmless, until you saw his eyes—they were black, dilated, hazed over with the demented look of corrupted magic.

  “You really shouldn’t show up uninvited,” Adrian said dryly, his gaze fixed on Jag. The two of them stared at one another, a silent standoff. “I don’t intend to wait months to create another Black Line while you hunt Talleous down and try to destroy his powers.” Before they knew his intentions, Adrian raised his hand toward Talleous and then made a fist. Talleous grabbed his throat, gasping for air as he fell to his knees. Adrian jerked his hand, and Talleous fell face forward, dead. “There will always be another Talleous and with him, another chance to form a Black Line.” His gaze shifted to Darius. “Did you know there are five children at various locations around the world with magic in their blood? All will grow strong enough to form a Black Line. Two will exceed even your abilities, Darius, and since I do not take your decline of my offer to join me lightly, I’m going to ensure those children do. And mark my word—one of those five will be the one to kill you Darius.”

  “You are all smoke and no flames, Adrian,” Jag said softly, his voice a sharp whip of warning.

  “I want you to live to see this, Knight of White, or mark my words, you’d be dead.” An evil smile touched his lips. “The next battle between my beasts and your Knights will be brutal, and I want you to enjoy every single minute of it.”

  “I enjoy every single one of your failures,” Jag countered.

  Adrian chuckled. “Getting bold now that you have those new powers of yours, aren’t you? We’ll see how bold you feel when you see what I have in store for you.” Fire crackled around him and he bowed to Jag. “Until we meet again, Knight of White.” He disappeared into the flames.

  Darius looked at Jag, and then pulled Cathy into his arms in silent agreement. The three of them seemed to disappear, as Jag and Darius used their magic to transport them to the front porch of the Knight’s ranch.

  Cathy instantly relaxed against Darius. “Thank God, we are home. I just can’t believe Adrian killed Talleous. And why did he tell us about the children?” Cathy asked. “Doesn’t he know we will try to find them?”

  “If Darius is busy finding those children, he’s not causing trouble for Adrian,” Jag explained, leaning against the wooden rail of the porch. “And he knows we have to try.”

  Darius agreed. “Before they become a bigger threat than Talleous.”

  Cathy shivered. “I hate how he vowed they’d come after you,” she said, staring up at Darius. “Can we find them and bring them to the ranch?”

  “Adrian will expect that,” Jag commented. “That has to be his plan.”

  “To use them against us,” Darius said. “Magic corrupts. For all we know, these children are already under his influence, and he’s somehow made it seem they are not. They have to be taken somewhere else. Studied. Saved if they can be.”

  “S
o you think it’s a trap,” Cathy said.

  “We know it’s a trap,” Darius and Jag both answered at once. The two men looked at each other, and Darius felt the mutual respect between them—felt the brotherhood of the Knights he’d left behind, now with him again.

  “What of this plan he talked about to kill the Knights?” Cathy asked.

  Darius responded, filled with the sense of brotherhood that his bond with Jag had created in him. “We are Knights of White, and we are always up for the challenge.”

  When he said those words, Cathy hugged him. Cathy—his mate, his woman, his friend. She’d changed his life, saved him in ways that reached beyond life and death. Now, it was time to take her home and show her how much those things meant to him, how much she meant to him.

  A month after that showdown with Adrian, they’d exchanged vows on the beach, and now, finally, they would make their mating official.

  Cathy lay in the silk sheets of Darius’s bed, their bed, with her husband, her lover, her mate. The white wedding dress she’d worn hours before lay in a silky pile against his dark floor, a symbol of the light and love she intended to bring into his life. She watched in awe as his muscles flexed—in his arms, his chest—the sleek sheen of sweat glistening on his chest, the pleasure etched in his handsome face. And when he bent down and pressed his lips to her ear, she heard the murmured words that he’d said so many times this past month, “I love you.” A second later, his teeth sank into her shoulder, and Cathy gasped with the intensity of the sensation—the joining of their souls. Finally, they were one. And she couldn’t be happier.

  Don’t miss the other spooky and sensual books in Lisa Renee Jones’s Knights of White series, also available in eBook format:

  The Beast Within

  Return of the Beast

  Beast of Desire

  Beast of Darkness

  Knights of White Bundle– contains The Beast Within, Beast of Desire, Return of the Beast and Beast of Darkness

  Looking for more paranormal romance? The sizzling and spine-chilling books of Silhouette Nocturne are available at www.eHarlequin.com or your local bookstore.

  Interested in writing for Nocturne Bites? Send your submission to NocturneBites@Harlequin.ca

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3519-3

  Demon’s Seduction

  Copyright © 2009 by Lisa Renee Jones

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