by Kim Faulks
The Hellhound pulled free, sliding to the back of my knee and then lower as he yanked my boots off one by one. “Then it looks like we’re in for one helluva ride.”
I stepped free of my clothes, and the coldness of this place found me, grazing my nipples and between my thighs. I pressed the key into Rival’s hand and stepped toward the bed before I turned. “Unlock the chains. I’m ready.”
Chapter Nineteen
Redemption
The Hellhound stepped closer, blue flames of Hell raging in his eyes. But I didn’t care about him, not unless he’d stepped in my way.
All I saw…all I smelled…all I raged for was her.
Her pale skin shimmered against the flickering light. My body pulsed and twitched as I searched those perfect eyes and then focused on her mouth.
Those lips. Fuck me. I wanted to touch, and taste. I wanted them stretched wide and thin, sliding around the head of my cock. I wanted to taste them, to take my fucking time, finding her all over again.
But the wave was rising again, pulling me deeper this time into something far from a man. I was a beast clutched in its claws…I was nothing but fucking and fucking…and fucking.
I lowered my gaze to her breasts as the Hellhound stopped beside me and reached for the shackle. “You hurt her…you fucking hurt her…” He stilled, hands at the iron, words hanging in the air.
I closed my eyes, picturing the worst that could happen. The Hellhound, the Archangel…and Titus, dead and torn around me. Lorn, broken, bleeding on the bed, her lifeless body in my arms, her spirit shattered, and my cock still needing her…still desperate to use her one last time.
The image stayed with me as I plunged down in the darkness, to the essence of myself. That wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t let it. I opened my eyes and turned my head to Rival. “I’ll end it before I’d let that happen.”
There was a second before the Hellhound nodded. A second where I envisioned him lowering his hands and walking away, with the key to the iron chains still in his grasp.
But the graze of metal on metal filled my ears and the tiny click as the key turned. My hand dropped like a weight beside me, smacking into my side. I could barely feel it now. Barely feel anything but that hunger…that need.
I focused on her as Lorn stepped backwards and sat at the end of the bed.
Just an animal…the Queen’s words echoed from the past.
Just a pretty fucking beast.
A shudder coursed through me as Lorn lifted one foot up to the end of the bed, widening her thighs in the process. My mouth watered at the sight, fixed on the smoothness of her skin and the thin line of hair that ran from her slit, as the Hellhound moved to the other hand.
Masculine energy swarmed around the room like a beast of its own. It lashed the walls…and me, as the last shackle opened and my knees buckled. Strong hands stopped my fall. “Easy there,” Rival growled in my ear.
I breathed in his thick, ravenous scent and drove myself forward, but the Hellhound wasn’t letting me go, even as I pushed his weight backwards.
Lorn was all I saw…all my body demanded as she pushed herself backwards on the bed. I crossed the space between us in the blink of an eye. My need all teeth, tongue, and cock. Her skin was so warm under my lips. I shoved my hand out, kissing the top of her foot, and then her ankle.
I wanted to rut, and kept on rutting. I wanted to bury myself inside her until there was no end of me and no beginning of her.
I wanted her writhing underneath me, her fingers buried in my hair. I wanted her screaming her pleasure into my mouth. But I made myself…no, I forced myself to take it slow.
Her veins pulsed and jumped under my lips as I moved from her ankle to the long curve of her leg. My body trembled, hips thrusting forward as I straddled her body.
“Eyes on me,” she commanded.
I was helpless but to obey. Every cell in my body fought the flare of my nerves. I was at war. Body and brain. Cock and heart. Take her…have her. Make her mine once more.
A snarl echoed in my ear, followed with the scuff of a foot against the floor. I lifted my gaze, finding the same hunger in all of them. Her men…her lovers stood around the bed, watching me.
I swallowed hard and lifted my hand, fingers grazing the outside of her thigh as I murmured. “I’m going to be as gentle as I can. But this isn’t going to be easy…on any of us.” I lifted my gaze to the Hellhound. “You’re going to need to help her. I don’t know how long this is going to last.”
Hours…days…
The words were trapped inside my head. I prayed they understood me. Rival moved first, climbing onto the bed beside her, his flaccid cock swinging as he reached for her breasts. “She likes to watch you,” he growled.
I nodded, knowing full well she belonged to them first. I was the lowest of the low. The runt. The one they allowed to taste. I rose up on my knees, arms out wide.
“No, you fucking idiot. She likes to watch your cock slip inside her.”
I flinched at his words.
He rolled her nipple between his fingers and lowered his mouth to hers. I could almost see the breath they shared. He turned at the last second, glancing at my cock and then into my eyes. “You want a written invitation?”
And just like that, the strangling terror eased. The Hellhound’s words were magic, and the others moved, Titus toward the foot of the bed next to me, while Gabriel strode around to the other side.
Lorn moved up onto her elbows as Rival kissed her, taking it nice and slow. The longer I watched them, the more I wanted her. But this was a different desire, one that plunged deep into my soul.
I slid my hand down her thigh to the inside of her knee. The Hellhound set the pace, and even though my body ached and my will trembled, I forced myself to go slowly, pushing her knee aside before I moved to the other.
Her slit widened, perfect pink glistening. I wanted to lower my mouth, to taste her again. But there was no more waiting, as a clear bead of fluid slipped from the tip of my cock. I gripped her hips as Rival broke the kiss.
Gabriel touched her breast, cupping the sweet rise until he squeezed her nipple. She watched me, eyes boring into mine as I eased against her. Tendons stretched along the inside of her thighs as she spread wider, the juncture all heat now. I slid against her, finding that sweet well. She lowered her gaze, watching me as I gently eased inside.
I stilled as the bed shuddered and shook underneath me. Rival and Gabriel glanced my way, until I realized it was me trembling…me, barely holding on. I gripped her hips, and jerked my hips forward, driving all the way into her body before I slid free.
A moan slipped from her lips, primal and perfect. She lowered her head against the mattress, reaching with one hand for Rival, and the other for Gabriel. But if I thought that both men were occupied with the curl of her fingers, then I was very much mistaken.
They watched me as I leaned forward. Watched me as she lifted her feet, locking them behind my back. Watched me as I closed my eyes and lost myself to the feel of her.
I hurried deeper, slid harder, grinding our hips until she whimpered with need. Still it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t Unseelie. I slid my hand along her navel, and all the way between her breasts to grip her throat.
A savage snarl echoed.
“Easy,” Titus growled.
But I never hurt her, only curled my fingers around the nape of her neck. My thumb rubbing across the front of her throat. Air moved under the touch, her pulse frantic against my palm. I clenched a little tighter, driving my hips forward.
I didn’t care.
Not about them.
Not even about myself.
Her moan reverberated along my thumb to spear into my arm. I felt her…slick, felt her rise—felt her fly as she clenched her legs. I thrust and gripped her throat tighter, until warmth flooded through me and I roared.
The sound carried, bouncing off the walls to slam into me. Her ankles unlocked, heels grazing my side as she dropped her feet to the mattr
ess.
I eased backwards, sliding out from inside her, our cum glistening in the shimmering light. But I was still hard, still ready, the drug racing through my body, driving the need once more.
“Come here,” she murmured. Her eyes shone with release, breath just a little too fast for her to catch. “Titus.”
They moved together, all muscle and desire. The yellow light glanced off the cop’s skin, but instead of the amber hue, it shone red, blue, yellow, and purple. The more I looked at him, the more I saw.
He wasn’t just a mortal. He wasn’t just a man.
Power hummed through the room as he lowered his head to kiss the silk of her belly and then the inside of her thighs. “I love you,” he murmured into her skin. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t give you.”
“Give me it all,” she whispered.
And with her words flowed a darkness, one that rode the power of this multi-colored light.
“I can feel it,” she murmured. Dark flames danced on the tips of her fingers. “More,” she whispered and reached for me.
I eased along the bed as Rival moved higher, his cock hardening as it danced near her mouth.
One turn of her head and he was inside. I watched those lips widen as she took him inside. I jerked as she cupped me, and then sighed with relief. The sight of them together made the male in me snarl with jealousy. But her hands were around me, and I envisioned her lips the same.
Titus eased back onto his feet, positioned himself between her legs, and gripped her waist. One heave and her hips were off the bed. She gave a moan when he drove inside her. Her hands moved, sliding up and down. I was lost to the rhythm, lost to her.
I leaned forward, taking the hard peak of her nipple into my mouth. Her body trembled, ribs moving under my hand as she breathed. God, she was beautiful.
Black flames broke out around her navel and raced downwards like wildfire until they met the cop’s body. I’d seen his magic once before, in Hell as we stood on that rocky outcrop and brought him back from the dead.
Aeon’s blood flowed through his veins.
Magic bled from him as he drove his body inside her. Out of this powerful connection we shared, something rose to the surface. Something that shook the stony walls of this goddamn cell. I could feel it, bigger than anything I’d ever felt before, bearing down on all of us.
Heat.
Power.
Love.
I moaned with the feeling and dragged my teeth across her nipple. She pumped her hand along my shaft, and that dark fire raced, spreading along her arm…her hand…her fingers.
I hissed with the connection, and the Unseelie in me rose to the surface. The bed trembled as a whimper tore from Lorn’s lips, and we rose above it, above everything. This room, this castle…this realm.
Aeon’s power mingled with Lorn’s.
One made the races.
One fell from Heaven.
The cop opened his eyes to find me, hips mid-thrust as he growled, “I can feel you. I can feel every one of you.”
Blue eyes blazed, casting Heavenly light across her chest as Gabriel answered. “Me…too…”
But the Hellhound had nothing to say but a snarl as the crescendo built and built…and built. The room was filled with color and light, my own Unseelie darkness mingling with theirs until, with a roar, the cop shuddered.
Lorn screamed her release around Rival as he drove his cock deep inside her throat and stilled. My body jerked. I gripped the sides of the mattress, feeling the rush.
But it wasn’t just me I felt. It was everyone, and everything. The Queen, the people, this world all swirled around me like a tangle of power that flowed through me.
My soul twisted and howled, melding back together, the thin silver thread of existence now whole. Jesus. I spread my fingers wide against her stomach as the last lash of power cut through the room…
And me.
Fire burned, stinging my flesh as the black flames of Hell were swallowed in a second. “Fuck!” I roared and jerked away from her.
I stumbled, bare feet smacking the cold stony floor.
But I didn’t feel anything other than the burn on my chest. I lifted my hand, fingers probing my skin above my heart.
“She’s marked you,” Gabriel gasped, and lifted his head.
He was still crouched over her, thighs spread wide, his cum glistening on her hand and the mattress.
Blue eyes met mine before he glanced at the burn. “Her power marks those who belong to her.”
“And who I belong to,” she finished, lifting the hand she’d curled around my cock to wipe her mouth.
There was power in her voice, and rage in her gaze as she lifted her gaze to the doorway, and then to me. “No one can take you from me, not anymore.”
I searched for that connection inside me, that unravelled and untethered silver cord of existence and felt the flare of power once more.
That can’t be.
The image of the cord filled my head. It wasn’t silver, not anymore. Where the threads had been frayed, they were now stitched and melted together in vibrant colors of blue, and black, and yellow, and red.
All the colors of our power…
Blue for Heaven.
Red for Hell.
Black for Lorn.
Yellow for Titus.
They’d healed me, somehow, some way, they’d healed what I’d broken and, as each one met my gaze, I knew they understood.
Lorn gave a tiny shake of her head and glanced toward the doorway once more. I could read her fears and her thoughts with one savage look.
This was our one chance…
Of getting out of this alive.
“I wish I could do more, but you ended your mortal body,” Lorn spoke louder than she had before. “There’s not a power alive that can fix that.”
Her gaze pleaded me to play along, to find the path she was showing me.
The words were husky and brutal, my voice not mine, “I made that choice, not you. It’s me who’ll have to live with the consequences.”
“So you have to stay,” she shoved up from the bed. “Down here, where I can’t get to you.”
“Yes,” I growled, letting all the hurt and the pain into my words, and prayed it was enough. “This is all we have. This moment…this act.”
“And what a fine act it was,” the Queen’s voice slithered from the darkness. “Bravo…bravo…”
She stepped out of the shadows and into the amber hue of the torchlight, glancing at Lorn as she swung her body from the bed. The men dressed, yanking on trousers and then their shirts.
But Mab wasn’t interested in them…she turned her head, her gaze drifted down the length of my body to settle at my cock. “Five drops…” she licked her lips, and I fought the shudder.
I knew what she was thinking. Five drops had pushed me close to the edge, any more and my mind would’ve shattered…she’d be left with nothing more than a shell…a ghost of the man she once knew.
“You knew the only way for him to save me was to end his mortal body and release his soul,” Lorn yanked on her jeans and then her shirt, forgetting her bra on the floor.
“Yes, I knew. If he loved you like he’s professed a thousand times, then he would’ve left the mortal realm behind.”
“That’s why you closed down the portals,” Titus growled and turned to face her. “And dragged Lorn here. You had this all planned out, didn’t you?”
The tone was one of aggression. She lifted her hand into the air and heavy footsteps crowded the room behind her. She was the Queen in this realm and she ruled with an iron fist.
“I’m sorry,” Lorn murmured. “Sorry for the pain I caused you, so please try, for everything that’s happened between us. I’m begging you, not as Lucifer’s daughter but as a woman in love with the same man, please show mercy.”
I flinched at the words. There was a second where I was sure Mab would laugh in her face. But instead, there was a glint of cruelty. One tiny flare of steel against
her stony gaze as she lifted her hands and murmured, “Of course.”
A tiny snarl of desperation slipped from Rival’s lips as Lorn crossed the floor. She lifted her arms at the last moment and grabbed the Unseelie Queen in a goddamn hug.
I hated seeing Lorn touch her, hated to know the fucking taint of Mab would even know the woman I loved. My fists tightened as Lorn gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her against her chest.
Mab lifted her gaze, and hate roared triumphant in her eyes.
“I hope we can find a way through this,” Lorn murmured.
The Queen lifted her hand, nails catching the fabric of Lorn’s shirt as she patted her shoulder. “I’m sure we can, now that Redemption is here to stay.”
Lorn pulled away from her, and stilled.
Tension built in the room, like the faint crack of thunder before the storm as she murmured, “Now.”
Rival lunged from the bed. Titus and Gabriel roared, charging toward them. Lorn was so fast. I barely caught the movement as she gripped Mab’s mouth and, with one swift movement, emptied the rest of the vial into her mouth.
The hard clack of the Queen’s jaw ripped through the room. Mab stumbled backwards, eyes blazing with rage and fear. “What the fuck did you do to me?”
Clear liquid spilled from her mouth. She coughed and spluttered and then swallowed as Lorn lifted her hand, the empty vial of Ana-miann in her hand. “Giving you a taste of your own poison. Let’s see how you like it, bitch.”
Chapter Twenty
Lorn
Boroch roared and lunged toward me, but was met with Rival’s massive hand the on center of his chest with a heavy thud. The Hellhound lifted his other hand, long, wicked, midnight nails poised to carve and slice. “Take one more step and see what Hell awaits you.”
There was nothing the guard could do, the poison already raced through her system. He wrenched his gaze toward me, and then to his Queen with a look of horror on his face. “My Queen.”
Mab stumbled and reached for her throat, her words nothing more than a hiss as she stared at me, and then Redemption. “I’ll fucking kill you…I’ll fucking KILL YOU!”