Emery nodded. He’d obviously been asking if they could take matters into their own hands. Green light.
Suck. Fondle. Enjoy.
“Bugger balls,” Penny whispered, shutting her eyes and trying to block out that pounding need. She craved the kind of satisfaction only Emery could supply. The deep, hard— “It’s getting to me. Their magic is getting to me.”
Darius glanced over, a small smile playing across his lips. “Mon coeur will be incredibly angry she missed this.”
“It would be a running joke until the end of time.” Emery chuckled darkly.
Penny elbowed him. “Don’t join in with him. You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“Sorry,” Emery murmured.
They stepped up to the front of the line now. The demon distributing the drink on their side of the cauldron was wearing chaps. It turned around, and part of it swung down around its knees.
“Nope.” Penny tried to back up. She bumped into the creature behind her. “This is crazy. We’re not here for this.”
Darius drank out of the offered cup. “This is the best place for us right now. You need to regain your energy and strength. I do not think anyone will look for us here until they’ve exhausted more obvious ideas. After tonight, you’ll be left to your own devices. As R—my dearest would say, suck it up. Pun intended.”
“You just sound lame when you say it,” Penny groused. “Not to mention we are spreading germs…” She paused as the leader climbed up onto the dais near her, a smile on its leathery face.
“Little flenchlin.” It took a cup and looked down at her. “I am excited to see you transform.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” she mumbled as the demon turned and dipped the cup into the cauldron.
Eyes on Penny again, it gave the cup to Emery. “Your partner will go first, just this once.”
“Great gravy without a boat,” she said as Emery sniffed the contents.
“If you didn’t need us so badly,” he told Darius, shaking his head a little, “there is no way in hell I would trust you this much.”
“Understood, Mr. Westbrook. You will be able to resist the temptations of the drink, if you choose. It is more potent than the blood you had earlier, but not horribly so, I shouldn’t think.”
“Resist the temptation?” The leader shook its head and chuckled. “Why ever would you want to resist something so natural? Enjoy it. Soak it up. Revel in it.” Its light eyes flashed.
Emery drained the cup, then handed it back. He licked his lips. “Tastes…good.” He pulled his hand free of Penny’s grasp and ran it down her back. “Amazing, actually. It tastes like…” He licked his lips again.
“It tastes like carnal sin.” The demon laughed deeply as it refilled the cup.
She took the cup from it, scowling for all she was worth. The contents swished in the glass—deep purple, not more than a mouthful, as Darius had said.
“It won’t hurt you, Miss Bristol,” Darius said. “I know very well that I would be skinned alive and eternally slaughtered if I were to ever harm you. That drink is safe.”
She growled, steeled her courage, knowing that if Reagan were here, she’d be taunting Penny something awful, and then downed the liquid.
The explosion in her mouth matched the magic in the air, still pounding through her body. The complex grouping of flavors spiraled through her senses. She couldn’t even describe it—rich chocolate, subtle spices, that wine Darius served on his island, home-baked apple pie…
It was as if all the flavors she loved best had been contained in one cup, each in its best possible formation. The best pie, the best PB&J sandwich, the best s’mores. They didn’t contradict each other, though they should’ve.
“Very good, little flenchlin.” The leader winked and took the cup before scooping up some of the drink for itself and gulping it down. “If you decide to…mingle, find me first.”
“She won’t be mingling.” Emery slipped his hand down to the swell of Penny’s hip and pulled her in possessively.
A moan escaped her as she soaked him in. The feel of that hand, hard and masculine. The rich timbre of his voice and his smell, comforting and arousing.
“The offer is out there.” The leader laughed and lifted its hand high, all six fingers of it. “Commence the music!”
A cheer went up, and Darius urged Emery and Penny out of the throng of creatures. “Here, back here. You’ll want to get settled in a hurry.”
Drums reverberated through the space, almost tribal in nature, a deep, rhythmic sound crashing through her blood. Excitement twisted her gut and tightness took over her core. Emery’s hand tightened around her hip, and she knew the rest of his body was reacting, too. Music from a strange sort of string instrument rose above the din, hitting a high note before dipping and then coiling and spiraling through her ears. The sound was sweet and full of longing, but spicy and naughty, too.
“Here.” Darius stopped them in front of a little alcove, the lighting so dim she could only see the wall at the back. “It’s small, which means it is only for a small group—two or three. No one will duck in here to join, unlike in the larger rooms. The resting area is around the side. This should allow you to…hide from sight. Or, if you prefer, we can look for a different—”
“This is perfect,” Emery said, ushering Penny in front of him. “We’ll lock ourselves in with magic.”
“Fantastic. I will be in the area, in case you need something. Otherwise…” Darius took a step back. “Enjoy yourselves.”
Emery smirked, of all things, and guided Penny farther into the alcove. A new instrument joined the others, a base that worked with the rhythmic drumbeat, pulling at her body, pushing, yanking, trying to get her to take her pants off.
“Darius basically just shoved us into a demon sex club in the Underworld, do you know that?” She helped Emery erect a wall and then nearly buckled and dropped to the ground at the thought of erect. “Oh boy, I might be in trouble.”
Emery tied off the spell and turned to her, the soft light in the alcove just bright enough for her to see his gorgeous blue and gold eyes, hungry with desire. “That drink is…something else.” His eyes roamed her body, stopping on her breasts before dipping to what Reagan would call her fun zone. “Do you want to resist? Would that make you more comfortable?”
Yes was on the tip of her tongue. But that look in Emery’s eyes stoked the fire within her to blazing, burning through her blood. She backed up slowly, deeper into the alcove. He stalked her, his big body thick with muscle, his movements graceful and light in spite of it. The light cut across his high cheekbones and accentuated his strong jaw and ruggedly handsome features.
Her core ached for him. Her knees didn’t want to keep working. She bumped against the elevated, flat surface covered in pillows. The fact that others had used it for this—that demons had—should gross her out. Those pillows alone should gross her out. But she couldn’t tear her thoughts away from Emery. From what was under that shirt. What was in those pants.
He pushed up close to her, his heat dosing her. “I want to fuck you, Penny,” he said, and she swallowed hard. Passion swelled. Lust pulled her under. She couldn’t focus on anything but his heat. His words. His unchecked hunger to get inside of her. She wanted him inside of her.
Reading her easily, he slipped his tough palm against her smooth skin. His fingers pointed upward as his hand moved, sliding over the swell of her breast, his thumb finding the sensitive peak.
She groaned, fluttering her eyes shut. His hot mouth was on hers in an instant, swallowing her sounds. His tongue swept through, his taste more divine even than that drink. Better than anything.
His kiss rose in urgency, and suddenly his hands were on the buttons of her pants. They were pushing her pants down and slipping between her thighs.
Her knees finally gave out. She fell onto the springy surface behind her, lifting her legs so he could rip her pants off. She pushed up quickly, undoing his button and yanking his pan
ts down as well. His hard length bobbed up, and she bent forward to capture it with her mouth, his hands on her head and then sliding down to caress her bare butt.
He yanked, pulling her head away before bending down and laying a bruising kiss on her lips. He stripped both of them of their shirts, then lowered.
“I can’t wait,” he said, crazed, out of control, desperate for her.
Desire pumped through her. A consuming need.
She pulled him on top of her, everything else forgotten, feeling the music pound through her, the drums adding to the ache in her body. The ache he could cure.
She lifted, and then he plunged deeply, filling her in a rush of incredible ecstasy.
“Fly, fly, little flenchlin,” she heard, echoing around their alcove. “Fly to your freedom.”
“That’s going to embarrass me tomorrow,” she said through pants, not able to get Emery close enough. Deep enough. Moving fast enough. “Harder, baby,” she said, in the moment again, able to feel nothing but his smooth length sliding in and out of her, in and out. Her back rubbing against the soft surface under her. His kisses dominating her world. “Harder!”
He groaned, lifting a little so that he could bear down. His hips crashed against her. The sound of their lovemaking danced with the steady beat of that drum. Of the music. Of the increasing pleasure that filled up every inch of her world.
An orgasm stole her breath and dragged her down into weightless bliss. She cried out, clutching his back, shaking around him. He swore, shuddering, emptying inside of her.
His lips were on hers again as they moaned with the aftershock. Still inside her, he rose just enough so that he could look into her eyes.
“This is the weirdest and hottest thing we’ll probably ever do. We’re in a demon sex club in the Underworld in a private…cave or something, on the demon equivalent of ecstasy. Like…is this real life?”
She laughed, all the stresses of the situation melting away. The moans and groans from the creatures outside of their alcove didn’t bother her. Nor did the music still beating through her veins. The desire still pooled hot.
“It is weird, yes.” She slid her hands across his shoulders and let the crazy scene envelop her, let some of her naivety drip away. “And it is hot. And this is real life when you’re friends with Reagan,” she whispered. “She’d probably be having a ball, banging Darius on the main floor.”
Emery kissed her. “Probably. I’m still hard. I have a feeling that drink is going to keep me that way for…a while.” He started to move again. “Whenever you want to go, we’ll leave, okay? You are in control of our fate right now. I’m just going to keep giving you orgasms until you say enough.”
The fire stole her breath again, and she arched back, rubbing her hard and sensitive nipples against his chest. “When in a demon sex club, you just gotta do like the demons do, I guess.”
His laugh was dark and dripping with sin. “Agreed. There could be worse places to hide.”
Twelve
Lucifer checked the screens hanging over the large window, looking for anything out of the ordinary within his kingdom. He viewed short snippets of action before moving along to the next sect.
He paid the most attention to the sects he knew to be political, the ones that would stand to gain favor if they used the trespassers as leverage. A few had more activity than normal, but that was likely because Lucifer’s people were churning through them, asking questions and searching.
“It has been two weeks. How could those vampires continue to elude us?” he demanded, turning to a small collection of his most trusted advisors.
It was Victoria who answered, easily the most courageous of all his minions, a trait that had kept her as his first assistant and confidante.
“They have proven…incredibly elusive. The vampire Darius didn’t travel in a straight line, and his trail largely seems to have vanished. There are no smells for our trackers. No signs of passage. The castle is presumably his ultimate destination, because of the heir, but his initial path didn’t seem to indicate any sort of destination at all. It seemed like he was winging it.”
“Winging it? Winging it?” Lucifer ground his teeth. “That vampire has set up a network of highly aggressive and intelligent traders throughout this kingdom. The more we look into it, the deeper the hole seems to go. He’s done this in a matter of Brink months. That is not a creature who wings it. There is a reason to his madness. We need to find it.”
“Yes, sire. You are entirely correct. And we wondered…” Victoria rolled her shoulders. “We wondered if maybe the heir could be prodded for information?”
Lucifer took a deep breath. “I’ve been working on her. Trying to sever the connection she has to the vampire and her friends. It’s proven…difficult.”
That was putting it mildly. She’d seemed more pliable since he showed her the garden dedicated to her mother, just like he’d hoped. But that only went so far. The woman was viciously stubborn, and she seemed to completely shrug off his manipulation tactics. Grand dinners and drunken nights and training—she often seemed like putty in his hands, to mold and shape how he would. But the second he tried to implant thoughts or coax information out of her, she shrugged it off, or made a flippant comment, or laughed at him. She disarmed him like he was used to disarming others. If the situation weren’t so dire, he would’ve felt a surge of pride.
That wasn’t true. He felt a gush of pride every time his anger rose at one of her comments. Every time he lost his cool and then realized she was waiting for his explosion. Waiting, and ready. Not scared.
If he did explode, he knew she’d thwart it as best she could, and it would be enough to save her life. He knew it, and she knew it. She’d grown in her magic incredibly fast. Faster than anyone he’d ever trained. Faster than he had thought possible. They now shared the same power level, but her magic was more complex. More diverse. She had the gift of those blasted angels, and it made her stronger. Harder to beat.
Those stupid creatures would laugh at him if they knew. Or maybe this was their grand joke. Just another parting gift.
But she could never feel completely at home here if she held on to her mortal attachments. And she had to feel at home here—she was born to rule. The mantle was hers; she had but to claim it.
That cursed druid wasn’t helping. He was whispering in her ear just like he had with the last heir, and if he wasn’t watched—carefully—he’d drive her to madness, too. Lucifer wouldn’t be able to watch that. Not with her.
“She is used to subtle maneuvering from that vampire Darius,” Lucifer said, watching his screens. “She knows when I’m trying to coax information out of her. And when I am trying to implant ideas.”
“She is yielding, I have heard,” Victoria said. “Her attendants see the change. She relies on the druid less, for example. She looks forward to her time with you more.”
Lucifer nodded. He had heard that, and it gave him hope that she was coming around. If she weren’t so stubborn, he’d think it was in the bag. As it was, he had to constantly keep his wits.
“What of Vlad?” he said. “He’s never been past the Edges. He can’t know how to maneuver in this kingdom.”
Victoria shifted her position, noticeably agitated. “It is a great mystery, your highness.”
He tightened his fist, fire running over his skin. “What is so mysterious about it?”
“The sect he usually does business with in the Edges said they did not see him. We turned their living quarters upside down. Nothing. We did find a trail leading from the river, though.” Her eyes narrowed. “It didn’t smell like him. Our trackers are sure. But they don’t know who it might be.”
“Not Vlad?”
“He could’ve disguised his smell,” said Durgess, another trusted advisor. Standing nine feet tall, he had large, muscled arms covered in chartreuse skin. “Both vampires seem to have access to magic.”
“Yes,” Lucifer said, realizing the hole in his own arsenal. It was currently
thought that a team of highly powerful mages had created the disturbance last week. The very same mages that had been supplying the vampire Darius with their magic.
Lucifer had ordered his people not to kill the mages until he could speak to them in person. If they could be harnessed for their power, he might find a place to store them. Otherwise, as the saying went, if he couldn’t have them, no one could…
“Continue to look. I’ll be taking my daugh—” Lucifer cleared his throat with the slip. None of his advisors reacted. “I’ll be taking the heir to see the dragons today.”
Now, they did react.
“Are you sure that is wise, sire?” Victoria asked. “A few of them have neonates. They are extremely vicious when protecting their young.”
“She can handle it.” Lucifer puffed up in pride. “I’ll have her bring that wet blanket of a druid, too.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and the druid won’t survive,” Durgess rumbled.
“That’s the hope.” Lucifer strutted away, angry still about the vampires, adrenaline fueling his blood at the thought of what was to come.
Reagan was ready. She had to be. She had the magic and the courage. The only other thing required to tame a dragon was the refusal to give in to pain. She’d shown she was capable of that after the elves’ treatment. More than capable.
He couldn’t wait to see what she did to those elves when she was able to claim her vengeance.
First, though, she had much to learn. If she survived the dragons, he would step her up into advanced work. She was ready. By then, he hoped she’d finally be ready to get rid of the druid and, with him, her ties to the outside world.
Thirteen
I waited with bated breath for Lucifer to show up. Today was the day. I’d get to meet the dragons and maybe even bond with one, though I had no idea how. They were fearsome beasts, which was cool, and they flew, which was cooler, and they allowed their person to fly on top of them, which was a life goal.
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