Liora shifted in his arms and he looked down at her. Tears sparkled in her hazel eyes and he could feel the pain beating in her heart. She touched the spot over it where her pentagram belonged. It was gone forever, taken from her by Nevar. It could no longer protect her, but Asmodeus would keep her safe in its stead. He would repel all who would mean her harm with his blades and his claws.
Asmodeus gently brushed a tear from her cheek and she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. He lingered with his hand against her face, giving her time to absorb the comfort she needed from him, wanting to soothe her pain. If he could, he would take the Devil’s life in payment for the lives the male had taken from her.
If he could.
“I only desired to send her mother to sleep, keeping her safe in the chamber,” the Devil said.
“On hand in case you needed to awaken the Great Destroyer… just as you kept me close by… a sacrificial lamb that you created for one purpose. I was never meant to be your second in command. I was only ever meant to be another pawn in your twisted games.” Asmodeus tightened his grip on Liora, clutching the one good thing in his life, the one thing that had given it purpose. Everything else had been a lie. Centuries of existence. Centuries of the Devil praising him and encouraging him, giving him free run of the realm, playing on his desire for power.
All along, the Devil had been manipulating him, honing him for this purpose.
He had wanted him to bring Liora to Hell, to him, so he could place her in that chamber and spill their blood.
He looked at his master, seeing only seething anger in his red gaze. No twisted smile of satisfaction. No glimmer of sick happiness.
Something was very wrong.
Asmodeus stared at him and he stared right back.
“You did not want to spill her blood or mine… you truly wanted to keep her safe.”
The Devil inched his head downwards. “I never intended to awaken the destroyer, unless I was forced to by Heaven.”
“It was another bloody insurance policy. I was right.” Erin clenched her fists at her side. “I said that you must have created Asmodeus as a sort of insurance policy and I was bloody right. You wanted to wield the threat of awakening this destroyer… this monster. Now that it’s happened, you’re all miffed about it… why?”
Nevar shot to his knees, arched backwards and roared at the cavernous black ceiling of Hell. He snarled, fangs sharp between his lips as they peeled back, and clawed at his violet-edged black chest plate.
“Nevar?” Liora went to reach for him and Asmodeus pulled her back against his front. She turned on him. “He’s hurting.”
Asmodeus could feel it too, and admired her compassion after everything Nevar had done to her, but he wasn’t sure it was Nevar’s pain he was experiencing.
The ground shook violently and Asmodeus drew Liora closer, fighting to keep his balance as the basalt bucked beneath them. It ended as quickly as it had started and ominous silence settled over Hell.
Nevar ripped his breastplate off, sending it clattering across the black basalt. The back plate dropped behind him.
Violet light burst from his chest, blinding Asmodeus, and then winked out again.
Nevar breathed hard, still arching backwards, his hands shaking viciously against the sides of his head, his fingers clawing his white hair back with such force that it pulled at his skin.
Asmodeus stared.
Purple spots of light chased over Nevar’s bare chest above his heart, smoke curling from them as they marked his pale skin, carving a shape into it. It began to take form. A reptilian head armed with sharp fangs and six curved horns. Wings that followed the sweeping arc of its scaly body. Clawed feet. A long barbed tail. It formed a circle on his chest the size of Asmodeus’s palm. In the centre of the beast, a perfect replica of Liora’s pentagram appeared. The dragon shifted and Nevar cried out again, the sound echoing around the curved courtyard. The beast clutched the pentagram in its claws and settled.
The light faded.
The sense of pain in Asmodeus faded too and Liora sagged against him. Her magic curled around her hands in black, red and purple ribbons of light. Had it come to protect her or was she intending to launch an attack? Her heart was steady again, her emotions verging on dark, and her eyes slid towards the Devil.
Asmodeus drew her closer and she flicked a glance up at him. He shook his head slightly, silently warning her not to attack the Devil. They were in no position to fight him right now, not with Erin in the firing line and with Apollyon present. It was too risky. Liora frowned and then finally nodded, and he could see in her eyes that she was only putting her plans on hold and not giving up completely. She wanted the Devil to pay for what he had done and when the day came, Asmodeus would be there by her side.
She looked over at Nevar and Asmodeus followed her gaze.
The Devil pointed a single clawed finger at Nevar’s chest. “That would be why I am annoyed… and why I am not killing him, and would suggest none of you do either. In fact, I would suggest you do your best to keep the wretched maggot alive.”
“Why?” Asmodeus had vowed to keep Nevar alive and help him rehabilitate, but that had been before he had realised the extent of what Nevar had done to him and to Liora. Now, he wanted the bastard’s blood on his hands.
“Because the fate of the world depends on him.” The Devil turned away from them, waved his hand so his throne disappeared, and began walking back towards his fortress. “He awakened the Great Destroyer. He must deal with the consequences.”
“Enough with the cryptic bullshit,” Erin snapped and the Devil glanced over his shoulder at her, one eyebrow cocked high. “Are you telling us that Nevar is somehow connected to the destroyer?”
The Devil smiled wickedly. “Not somehow. Nevar is the creature’s master.”
His fiery gaze shifted slowly to Asmodeus and Liora, and Asmodeus pulled her closer, unwilling to allow her out of his arms while the Devil was around and looking as though he needed someone to take out his anger on, and while Liora was still having thoughts about fighting him.
“And you two are the creature’s guardians. I will expect you to be here to do your duty, Asmodeus. It might be one hour or one century before the beast awakens. That is one hour or one century in which you will guard the chamber. I command you to remain here in Hell until the time when the Great Destroyer awakens and your…” He flicked Nevar a glare and his voice dripped with venom. “Pet… will remain here with you.”
The Devil was ordering him to remain in Hell?
“I cannot.” Asmodeus released Liora and felt her gaze on him.
She would never consent to living in Hell with him, not after everything she had been through in this realm. She hated this place and his master. She hated the things Asmodeus had done while here and the sort of man it had made him.
If he had to remain here to watch over the destroyer, he would have to do it with only Nevar for company.
But he didn’t want to lose Liora.
“You can and you will. End of discussion. You will obey me, Asmodeus.” The Devil stalked away from him and Asmodeus wanted to hurl himself up the steps, grab his shoulder and force the male to rescind his command.
It was already flowing through him, tugging him into obeying, the power of it stronger than any order the Devil had issued to him before. He wouldn’t be able to resist this one. The Devil had placed all of his power into it and Asmodeus was his unwilling servant. He had to carry out this command.
“Asmodeus?” Liora whispered and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
The Devil hadn’t mentioned her. He hadn’t demanded that she stay in Hell. Could Asmodeus demand such a thing of her?
Would she want to live with him?
On the beach, she had been quick to show her disappointment and disapproval. She hated what he had done to Nevar and so did he, because it had made her see the evil in him, the extent of the darkness he held within his heart, and there was nothing he could do
to make her forget that, especially not while Nevar was around.
The male curled over on his knees, rocking back and forth, clutching his chest and muttering black things in the demon language. He wanted blood.
Asmodeus closed his eyes and his horns shrank into his head, his shadows slipped away, and his fangs ascended.
“What happens now?” Liora said and Asmodeus tried to look at her but his gaze refused to settle on her. He stared off to her left, at Nevar.
He wanted to tell her that she would live with him in Hell. He needed her to stay, wanted them to be together because he couldn’t live without her now, but how could he convince her to remain in Hell with him when what he wanted most of all was for her to be happy and safe?
She would be neither of those things in this realm.
“I will take you back to the island and then I will return here with Nevar.” He couldn’t bring himself to say more than that, to voice what he knew he had to do, because he didn’t want it to become real.
He didn’t want to let Liora go, even when he knew he must.
“Oh,” she said in a small voice and cast her gaze down at her feet. “I see.”
Asmodeus cursed beneath his breath. He didn’t want her to see. He wanted her to tell him he was crazy and being a fool. He wanted her to tell him that he was being beta again when she liked him alpha. He wanted her to give him a sign.
He wanted her to fight for him just as he wanted to fight for her.
He needed her to stay with him.
She would.
He would do all in his power to convince her that they belonged together and that he could keep her safe and make her happy if she lived in Hell with him.
He refused to let her go because she belonged to him now and he belonged to her.
Forever.
CHAPTER 26
Liora left the group by the fire as the sky changed, turning gold and pink. The gentle swaying of the palm trees in the warm breeze and the swish of the water against the shore didn’t soothe her in the slightest this evening.
Asmodeus was leaving.
He was going to follow orders and return to Hell with Nevar and his hellhounds, and she would never see him again. She had gone through one feeling after the other since he had announced his intent in Hell. Bitterness and disappointment. Anger and resentment. Misery and heartache.
Now, she was feeling so many conflicting emotions that she wasn’t sure what she was doing. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t think, and couldn’t function, but she knew there was something she definitely couldn’t do.
She couldn’t let Asmodeus leave.
He had changed back into his black linen trousers after they had arrived on the island and they had discussed everything they had learned with Apollyon and the others, formulating a sort of plan. Liora hadn’t listened to half of it. She had spent most of the hour staring at Asmodeus, wondering why he was intent on leaving her behind.
It had been at the end of that hour when she had realised she was the reason why he hadn’t mentioned taking her with him to Hell.
In the midst of the terrifying revelation that her blood combined with Asmodeus’s had awakened some sort of primordial monster and that the end of the world was either potentially nigh or a long way off, she had forgotten all the terrible things she had said to Asmodeus. She had forgotten how things had been between them before Hell’s angels had snatched him from the island.
Asmodeus had turned to leave with his two hellhounds as his only company and she had tried to stop him. He had squeezed her hand and given her an empty smile, and told her that he needed a minute alone. She had given him five because she had seen in his beautiful eyes that he needed every second of them. He was fighting himself again, torn in two because of the orders his master had given him.
And because of the things she had said.
That little revelation was the reason she was moving at an ever-increasing pace across the warm sand, trying to catch up with him before he did something stupid like leaving without saying goodbye. She had to explain and apologise, and make him see that she hadn’t really meant what she had said.
She needed him.
He couldn’t leave her.
He had promised.
He reached the far end of the beach. Romulus and Remus stopped playing in the water and raced to him. He held his hands out to them and her heart clenched when he rubbed them between their ears and heaved a sigh. She hurried along the firm white sand, running now, the water splashing over her bare feet as the small waves rolled in.
She managed to catch up with him at a spur of rocks that curved outwards into the water, sheltering the bay.
“Asmodeus?” she said and he stopped with his back to her and raked his fingers over his black hair, drawing it tight between them.
He sighed but didn’t turn to face her. He waved his hand and Romulus and Remus took off again, bounding back into the water.
She edged closer to him, wanting to be near him, needing it. When the Devil had captured her and sent her to sleep, she had thought she would never see him again and it had hit home just how much she loved him, just as seeing Nevar had made her acknowledge the terrible things he had done.
And something told her that it had made that hit home for Asmodeus too.
“You’re thinking about what you did to Nevar, aren’t you? And the things that I said to you,” she whispered and he lowered his head a fraction of a degree and then looked out to sea at the sunset.
“I regret what I did to him now… and I know you are struggling with your feelings about it and about me.” He looked over his broad shoulders at her, the regret he spoke of in his golden eyes, calling her to go to him and comfort him, and tell him everything he needed to hear so his pain would fade away. “I do not want you to think me evil when I have tried so hard to be good. I would hate to be alive knowing that you despised me because of the things I have done in the past.”
She knew that. He had changed so much since she had met him, but even back then she had seen good in him and had felt attracted to him. Part of her believed that this revelation and seeing the extent of his wickedness and how cruel he could be should change her feelings for him but it hadn’t. She still loved him.
She still wanted to be with him, even if that meant living in Hell.
He swiftly turned and caught her hands, clutching them in his, holding them with such force that she couldn’t move her arms. She couldn’t take her eyes away from his, couldn’t speak to alleviate the nerves she could feel in him and the desperation she could see in his eyes. That desperation quickly became resolve, beautiful and fierce, lightening her heart and giving her hope.
“Do not give up on me, Liora. I could not bear it. I have sought to protect you but in the end it was the result of my own foolish actions that placed you in the most danger and took you from me.” Asmodeus looked down at their hands and then back into her eyes, and his gaze flickered beyond her shoulder, darkening as it landed on the area around the camp, most likely settled on Nevar. Asmodeus raised one of his hands and brushed her throat, his focus lingering there and his voice dropping to a soft whisper. “And my actions have taken something of value from you… something precious to you… and I cannot give it back.”
“What happened to it?” She had thought that it was missing, not that it was gone.
“Nevar crushed it. He was angry with me. I am sorry, Liora. I failed you once again. I tried to take it back but I could only do so by taking Nevar down, and I…” Asmodeus pressed his palm to her chest, his fingers stroking her throat.
“You didn’t want to kill him… because of me.” She could see it all playing out in his eyes. He had held back because he had thought of her and what she would think of him if he killed Nevar. What had she done to her proud, beautiful, wicked angel? Liora took her hands from his and cupped his cheeks, bringing his gaze to meet hers. “I don’t think you’re evil, Asmodeus, and nothing you could ever do would change my feelings for you. I don’
t want you to live in fear of that happening… believing that any action you take would make me leave you. I’m not condoning you killing without reason, but, well… if there’s need… I mean, if I’d had my faculties about me a little more in that crystal room, I would have killed Nevar not just jumped on his sword.”
Asmodeus frowned and lowered his hand to her stomach, brushing his fingers over the black material of her tank top. “I wish you had not done that.”
“In my defence, I thought I had my pentagram on, but I don’t regret what I did because if I hadn’t… I don’t want to think about what would have happened.” Liora swallowed, trying to ease the tightness in her throat and fighting her tears.
She didn’t want to cry. She wanted to be happy. Asmodeus was safe and alive, and so was she, and that was all that truly mattered.
Asmodeus tunnelled his fingers into her hair, drew her to him and pressed a kiss to her forehead, lingering there with his lips against her. She closed her eyes and absorbed the love in his kiss, the tenderness and affection she could feel in it, and the relief too. She couldn’t imagine what he must have gone through or felt after discovering she was gone, and after hearing the reason why the Devil had created him.
Liora settled her hands against his chest, feeling his heart thumping against them and sensing his confusion and pain. He had been as hurt as she had over the past day. No, he had been through worse. She had turned on him and the Devil had done the same, and now he was talking of leaving her and going back to Hell, with only Nevar for company.
No good would come of that.
He needed someone to help him with Nevar.
He needed her.
He looked down into her eyes with ones that were pure gold in the light of the sunset, filled with deep longing that she wanted to satisfy. He needed her and she needed him, and if he asked it of her, she would go to Hell to be with him.
Her Wicked Angel Page 37