devil 02 - tween a devil and his hard place Read online

  My Dialle, still frowning over his father’s insult to me, didn’t seem to hear the king. He was looking at me with concern, most likely afraid that I would open my big mouth and get myself into trouble. I smiled. Although I was known to throw caution to the wind and jump butt first into a conflagration when my temper got the best of me, I wasn’t a complete drooling idiot. I initiated a field trip into his mental drawers and told him, I’ll get even later, when he’s not expecting it and can’t retaliate.

  He smiled at me and raised one of my hands, kissing it and leaving a warm, tingly spot where his lips had been. I would expect nothing less from you.

  I shivered from the kiss and my body melted into his without first asking permission from my brain.

  We both jumped as the king roared, “Attend me!”

  His voice boomed through the cavernous room, rattling windows and vibrating walls. I could almost hear the commotion and conversation outside the heavy, gold doors stop as the soldiers and hopeful queens-to-be jolted to shocked silence.

  My Dialle pushed me ever so subtly behind him as the temperature in the room rose to about one hundred and thirty degrees and the divan behind us burst into flame. He gave a small bow and said, “I beg your forgiveness for my inattentiveness, my king. I am distracted continually by my lust for this creature.”

  Oh great, blame me! I thought at him fiercely.

  I don’t think he’ll set you afire just because I lust after you, Astra.

  You DON’T THINK!

  Just trust me. And DO NOT open your sweet lips to speak.

  Gradually the king regained his composure and the temperature in the room dropped back to almost normal. With a wave of his hand the burning couch was extinguished and I noticed it was completely unharmed. Completely frunkin’ cool! I wanted to learn how to do that.

  The king sat back down behind his onyx desk and we gave him our full attention.

  “It appears the witches have some role in the demon’s revolt. I suspect the Supreme High Witch wants a place at the table when we gather for the dark world caucus next month. She has been showing signs of trying to develop her own court and my scouts have informed me that she has expressed an intention to demand equal standing with the kings.”

  This caught my Dialle’s attention. “That’s preposterous!”

  The king nodded. “Of course. And while I admire ambition,” he looked at me and smiled as if he and I shared a secret, “especially in one as lovely as the Supreme High Witch, I expect each member of the dark world caucus to know his place.” He stood and came around the enormous desk, approaching us.

  One moment he was walking toward us and the next I was laying on the previously fiery divan with him on top of me, certain parts of his devilish anatomy digging into my body. I struggled to see my Dialle but he appeared to have been “extinguished” from the room like the earlier flames.

  The king stared down into my eyes as I struggled ineffectively against his body’s invasion of mine. “Get off me!”

  He laughed and lowered incredibly sexy red lips toward mine. In desperation I tried to shove him away but my arms felt like heavy rubber and I could barely lift them let alone push him away. “I’m warning you, I bite!”

  “Promises, promises lovely Tweener.” His lips lowered to within an inch of mine.

  “I have lots of diseases.” I was having trouble breathing in the scorched air that we were creating. Against my will my body was reacting to his and I had to force myself not to pull his long, hard body closer to mine.

  “I have immunity to all of them.” His lips found mine and I was suddenly way too close to his velvet gaze. For the first time I saw that they were not regular, black eyes. They pulsed and swirled with red and silver streams that formed patterns and whirlpools in the center of the eyes. I closed my eyes as I realized the swirls were making me dizzy and weak but the feeling didn’t disperse.

  Almost simultaneously I felt his hand on my breast and his teeth on my throat. Then, before I knew what was happening, my daemon hickey started throbbing and it sparked, causing the randy king to jerk back from my neck with a startled cry.

  I used the sudden breathing space to pull rational thought back into my fuzzy head and quickly gathered my power together before he could settle himself back at my neck. Raising my hands toward him I shot every ounce of power in my core toward him and he flew backward into the air. In fact he flew so far I heard him hit the wall with a thud and a curse.

  I didn’t wait around for his reaction. Dialle, get me the Hades out of here!

  And just like that I was back out in the hall and the three of us were running like the last circle of Hell was closing in on us. Dialle dragged me down the long hallway by the hand and Gerch followed, constantly looking over his shoulder and reeking of stark terror.

  As we turned the first corner we heard something that sounded like an explosion, followed by screams of pain and frantic shouting. The last sound we heard before my Dialle whisked us out of there was the king’s voice pounding down the hall like a physical presence, vibrating the building with unrestrained rage. “This isn’t over, Dialle!”

  My Dialle looked at me and shook his dark head. “I see you’ve managed to put yourself into a pickle again, Astra.”

  “I didn’t put myself into a pickle, Dialle, I’m in one.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  I opened my mouth to explain and then realized it was a moot point. “I didn’t put myself into that pickle, Dialle, that pickle put itself into me.” As soon as I realized what I’d said my face turned deep red and he laughed. Then he pulled me into a kiss that made my socks smoke and the world stopped moving as he transported us away from a literal Hell on Earth.

  Chapter Two

  Phantom Love

  A phantom rides upon her thighs and leads her thoughts astray

  But learning who the culprit is, must wait another day.

  The Viper settled into its usual parking space with a whisper and hovered silently above the ground. “Exiting,” I said and the driver’s side door opened upward on a whoosh of air. I climbed out and headed for the flash elevator in the center of the parking structure. The gray metal doors swung open as I approached and I entered the dimly lit car.

  “Thirteenth floor,” I said distractedly as a tidal wave of sensual warmth rolled over me. The heat felt like thousands of tiny touches caressing my body, leaving behind row after row of goose bumps that made me shiver and tighten my thighs.

  I closed my eyes, clenching my teeth and rode the wave as the car sped upward, toward my office. The unexpected attacks had been happening all morning and I was starting to get worried. I couldn’t seem to control them and they came with no warning at all. I was like a bitch gargoyle in mating heat.

  As I neared my floor the wave started to dwindle. Just when I thought I was going to survive another one, my eyes jerked open and I gasped as I felt the first ghostly touch to the heated spot where I throbbed and ached the most.

  A jolt of pleasure shot through me, robbing me of breath and thought and I almost went over the edge from just that one touch. My knees buckled, dropping me to the floor in a boneless sprawl.

  I cried out as invisible fingers slid into my wetness and touched the core of my pleasure. At the same time I felt a hot moist mouth settle onto my lips and something hot and wet bathed both breasts. I was helpless against the totality of the onslaught. I lay writhing on the filthy floor of the elevator, moaning as my ghostly lover ignited every pleasure center in my traitorous body.

  The invisible fingers moved with a lover’s rhythm and I pressed my knees together as I felt an explosion building around the ghostly touch. My hips flew off the floor and my knees jerked apart in mindless submission. I felt my power spark in response to my body’s explosive heat and I let it loose, hoping it could save me somehow. Instead of exploding away from me as I expected, the power surged and pulsed as if it had been joined by another power surge and wrapped around me like a blanket, pul
ling my spectral lover more tightly against my body and enhancing every feeling his ministrations had ignited.

  Suddenly a different spectral part replaced the fingers and all rational thought went bye-bye. My body wrapped around the huge, hard invader and sucked it happily in, while my frantic body jerked and built toward a release that I knew wasn’t far away.

  My skin burned from the exquisite torture of the spectral ministrations in harmony with the heated probing of my own power as it slid around and through me, heightening my pleasure and bringing my spectral lover almost into the visible plane. As my pulse beat at an alarming rhythm and the pressure built until I felt the throbbing in my head, something wavered above me and, for just a millisecond, I saw black silk flowing around a masculine face with strong lines and the outline of a long, hard body. But the form faded away before I could really see it and my invisible lover’s ministrations increased, driving all thought of physical form from my mind.

  I climbed closer and closer to that peak, begging my invisible assailant with my mind, not to stop. Oh Hades no, never stop but to finish me off. To let me reach that elusive peak that was oh-so close but still just out of reach. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what was happening was wrong and so very dangerous but the rational part of my brain was being beaten down by the pleasure seeking slut-monkey of my emotional side and I rode the cavalcade of intense feelings with only a tiny feeling of latent guilt. My rational side mumbled something about paying the price later but the slut-monkey quickly and easily sledgehammered my wimpy conscience into silence. The whole thing felt entirely too good to be bad. Didn’t it?

  Finally, screaming at the top of my lungs, I tumbled over that elusive climax with a final thrust of my body. The fiery climax convulsed me for what felt like several minutes before finally subsiding into a pleasant feeling of warmth all over my body and a soft, satisfied throbbing.

  I lay shuddering and panting on the filthy floor of the elevator until feeling returned to my legs. As the doors slid open I felt my ghost lover bend over me one last time. Soft lips touched my ear and words whispered against my sensitive skin, “Until later, lovely Astra.” And then he was gone. The fog in my brain filtered slowly away as the elevator doors slid to full open position.

  It took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking up into a couple of worried-looking sets of eyes. Two of the other tenants of the building were standing out in the hallway, looking down at me sprawled on the filthy floor.

  I started to push myself up and, looking down, realized that at least I was still fully dressed, if a bit rumpled.

  The taller of the two men reached for my hand as I struggled against rubbery limbs. “Are you all right? Have you been attacked?”

  I looked up at him and…amazingly…I laughed, my body still shuddering with pleasure. “You might say that.”

  Looking even more concerned, the second man reached to help me to my feet by placing a hand under my arm. “Should we call for the unplanned injury crew?”

  I shook my head and gently extracted my arms from their well-meaning grasp. “No. I’m fine, I was just feeling a bit…ill. I’ll be fine once I get a chance to sit.”

  The taller man, who I now noticed had longish, curly black hair and the most amazing hazel eyes with long lashes, reached as if to steady me and I realized I was still wobbly on my legs. “Can we help you get somewhere? You don’t look at all well.”

  I laughed again, causing the two men to frown at me as if I were emotionally unstable…which in a way I was. “No, really. I’m feeling fine now. Thanks though…for your help and your concern.”

  The taller man extended a large hand with soft, curling black hair on the back of it. In my current, heightened condition the hair seemed to sparkle softly, like dew. “My name is Ralph Peters. If you need something…anything…please feel free to ask. I’m in 13C.”

  The smaller man extended his hand and I took it. “I’m Ralph’s partner, Bob Gleason. Ditto on the help.” He smiled and his warm, nondescript brown eyes sparkled. “Anytime.”

  I thanked the two men and wobbled toward my office. I could feel their gaze on my back all the way to my door. I entered my office and closed the door behind me with a sigh of relief, leaning against it and closing my eyes. “Hades. What just happened to me?”

  “Astra? Are you okay?”

  My eyes flew open and locked onto Emo, my newly gorgeous partner and longtime friend. I was still trying to get used to seeing a drop-dead gorgeous royal devil instead of the squat, red version of my Emo that I’d practically grown up with. I had recently learned that although Emo had been born into the royal court of a royal father and a fallen angel mother, he’d been cursed as a young man by King Nerul, who was now, hopefully, dead, to look like one of the lesser devils. His real form had been restored to him upon Nerul’s death. This new Emo was disturbing to me on so many levels. But he was still my friend. And I needed a friend right at that moment.

  I smiled at him and pushed away from the door. Reaching out for him, I gratefully allowed myself to be folded into his strong, lean, golden-skinned arms. “I’m fine now. I just felt a bit ill for a few minutes.”

  I felt him tense in concern. “What can I do for you? Shall I call the unplanned injury crew?”

  I laughed. “No. Nothing. I just want to sit for a few minutes.” I reluctantly pulled myself from his arms and dropped into the nearest chair. Then I looked up at him and smiled to ease his worried frown. “Have you had any luck with that stuff I asked you to do?”

  Emo continued to stare at me for several seconds more, his midnight gaze seeming to pierce my mental barriers until I began to worry he’d read my recent ghostly attack there. My face started to burn and I looked down, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

  Finally he sighed and moved around to sit behind his desk, where I assumed he’d been when I entered the office.

  “The local coven is denying any involvement in this uprising. They refused to let me speak to the Supreme High Witch but they were quite adamant that the last thing they would want to do was get involved in a fight between the royals and the demons.”

  I shook my head. “The king isn’t wrong. If he says they’re involved they are involved. King Dialle is many things but he isn’t careless, he has always kept a tight rein on the dark worlders.”

  Emo nodded. “I agree. Word is the Supreme High Witch is ambitious and jealous of the attention the other dark worlders are getting. I’ve heard the rumors too that she wants to make a play for more power.” He paused and slanted me a look. I could tell he knew I wasn’t gonna like what he was going to say and braced myself. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe you should contact DD Raoul.”

  I frowned. It had, of course, occurred to me that Raoul might be able to help me with the witches since he had been part of the coven for most of his life. But I was resisting bringing him into the current mess. He’d been having some personal issues recently and had requested personal leave to work through them.

  “I was hoping to avoid that.”

  “I know. But if he can give us some information it might save us several days of trying to pull it out of a very resistant coven.”

  I sighed. I knew Emo was right but that didn’t make my decision any easier. “I’ll think about it. I know I should do it but I really hate to bother him right now.”

  Emo simply shrugged. “As for the demons, the king’s information has been confirmed. I have an…acquaintance in the demon court. He confirms that Alcott plans to capture and put to death hundreds of humans in a show of strength to help them break out from under the devils’ control. They are counting on the royals being averse to publicity and having the humans all riled up against them.”

  “But you heard nothing about the Supreme High Witch being behind it?”

  Emo shrugged again. “All I have are rumors. But the rumors I heard tell me that she’s involved somehow.”

  I nodded and sat, thinking. After a minute I realized I had no choice. Sighing, I stood
up. “I’ll go see DD Raoul. I don’t see any way around it.”

  “Okay boss. Good luck.” His blacker than night eyes sparkled up at me and his beautiful lips curved up just the tiniest bit at the corners. The smile was very intimate and caused me to tingle in places I didn’t want tingling ever again this close to my office. I couldn’t help noticing, however, that his bottom lip was just the yummiest bit plumper than the top one. I found myself wanting to chew gently on that yummy lower lip and almost gasped aloud with shock. I just wasn’t used to having these thoughts about my friend and partner. I finally tore my gaze away and turned toward the door. I could have sworn I heard chuckling behind me.

  A thought occurred and I jerked around to look at him. Eying him with my fiercest, most suspicious gaze I asked, “What were you doing just before I came into this office?”

  Emo narrowed his gorgeous almond shaped eyes at me and laughed. “Why?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  He laughed again and the eyes sparkled with mischief and something…more. “I was filing. What else would I be doing?”

  I narrowed my own green orbs at him and cast my eyes around his office. Not a single piece of paper lay across the top of his desk or anywhere else for that matter. Emo had always been almost compulsive about keeping his desk neat. I decided it was possible he could have been filing but…

  I didn’t believe him. Damn!

  I continued to stare at him but he just laughed and shook his head, black ringlets swirling around a darkly whiskered face with a square jaw. “Whatever you’re thinking I didn’t do it.”

  Holy shit! “What didn’t you do, Emo?”