“Oh? I had Mauve prepare a special room for our new Dominus. The view is exquisite. But if you wish to scorn my hospitality…” He looked down at his nails with a shrug, letting the sentence hang with unknown consequences.
Conah’s jaw jumped. Was this some kind of etiquette test?
I smiled and inclined my head. “I would love to take the room you’ve had prepared, and I’m sure as a gracious host, you wouldn’t mind me sharing the room with Malachi.”
It was weird calling Mal by his full name, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Asmodeus’s eyes crinkled. “As you wish, Felton.”
Felton. That was me. God, this was going to take some getting used to.
“Malachi, walk with me. Felton, Conah, feel free to settle into your rooms and freshen up. There’s plenty of hot water. Living in an outer circle doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the benefits of Imperium technology.”
He didn’t wait to see if we agreed to the plan before striding toward the double glass doors leading onto a balcony.
Mal gave me a tight nod and then followed his mentor.
“This way, please.”
I jumped at the sight of the female demon standing in the doorway. When the fuck had she come in?
“Come on.” Conah led the way out of the room behind the maid.
I glanced back toward the balcony in time to see Asmodeus open his inky black wings and take flight. Mal looked over his shoulder and locked gazes with me before launching himself after his mentor.
I guess when he said walk with me, he’d meant fly.
There was nothing like a scalding hot shower to chase away aches and pains. The carriage ride, the shifting into Loup and back, and the fighting had done a number on several muscle groups. I missed Iza. Urgh, she gave the best massages.
Right now, I’d even agree to a butt rub from the imp.
The shower stall was huge enough to accommodate at least four people, and jets of water sprayed out from the ceiling and the walls, hitting every inch of my aching body.
Half an hour was probably too long to shower. But fuck it. I wasn’t paying the water bill. I stepped out of the stall and froze. Where were the towels? They’d been in here when I’d gotten in? Hadn’t they?
Dripping all over the tiled floor, I headed into the bedroom and almost had a heart attack to find Asmodeus standing by the window holding a, you guessed it, towel.
My instinct was to cover my tits and my crotch, but I stopped in time. I was a guy. A hot, confident guy. That’s all he would see, and from the look on his face, it was enough.
I stood tall and held out my hand for the towel.
He took a moment before throwing it to me. Once again, habit had me wanting to tie it around my chest to cover my breasts, but he couldn’t see those, and men hung towels around their hips.
I did just that and glared at him. “Are you in the habit of invading other people’s privacy and stealing their towels?”
“I wanted to see what had turned Malachi’s head from females to males. I see it. You are exquisite, Felton.”
He took a step toward me, head tilted to the side, tongue peeking out to touch the corner of his mouth. There was no denying he was fucking gorgeous. No denying the sexual magnetism radiating off him, but he was the demon of lust. He was sex and power, but he wasn’t Mal.
“I taught Malachi all he knows,” Asmodeus purred.
I gave him a cool smile. “And at some point, the student became the master.”
He blinked in surprise. “You care for him.”
“I’m in love with him.”
Asmodeus’s eyes darkened with pity. “Oh, you poor boy. You have no idea the heartache you’ve signed up for.”
“I know everything, and I don’t care. I’ll take an eternity of heartache for a lifetime of loving him. It would be worth it.”
“Did you hear that, Malachi,” Asmodeus said.
I looked to the main doors to see Mal framed there. His chest was heaving as if he’d run a marathon. His emerald eyes were like beacons in his face as they tore over me, and then his gaze slashed across the room to settle on Asmodeus.
“Get out.” His voice was a dangerously low vibration that spoke of the need to do damage.
Asmodeus walked casually toward him. I tensed, expecting Mal to lash out, expecting goodness knows what, but then Asmodeus was gone, closing the door behind him.
Mal stared at me. “Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Why did you say that stuff?” His voice was jagged and rough.
“Because I meant it.”
“Fuck you, Fee.” He strode toward me. “You tell me you want to be friends, and then you say shit like that.” He grabbed my jaw in a bruising grip, forcing my mouth open, and then crushed his lips to mine, claiming me with his tongue. He devoured me, licking me out, biting and sucking on my tongue until I was a panting, clawing mess in his arms. The towel was gone, my dignity and resolve were gone. I wanted him inside me, and I needed it now. He grabbed my ass and hauled me up so I could wrap my legs around him. His wings curled around us, shielding us, and he pushed me against the wall.
This was how he carried me when we flew, but his mouth on my neck, on my breast, teeth grazing my collarbone before sucking on my chin and claiming my mouth, were all new. He reached between us and unzipped his pants, and then his cock was rubbing against my swollen, wet clit.
“Fuck, Fee. Fuck. Friends don’t fuck.”
I rolled my hips against his cock and then adjusted my angle. “I don’t care.” I slid onto his length, taking him deep.
He thrust up into me, grunting and then moaning as his balls met my ass. My head fell back as he began to pound into me, raw and desperate and angry. He fucked me violently, all the while cradling me with his wings. Sobs clawed up my throat and escaped my lips.
“Yes, yes, yes.” I leaned my head to the side, offering him my neck. “Please.”
He didn’t protest, he didn’t ask me if I was sure. He just took what I offered, sinking his fangs into me, and soothing my scream with the delirium in his saliva. I came like a supernova, body jerking and bucking as my sheath milked his cock. He made a strangled sound, pulling his fangs from my neck and planting his lips on mine as he came.
Copper filled my mouth. My own blood, his tongue, his fangs. His kiss tore at my mouth while we crested again and again.
And, in that moment, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for this demon. No lengths I wouldn’t go to in order to save his life. I loved him. I fucking loved him.
We lay in a heap of tangled limbs. He was asleep, heavy and deep. There was color back in his cheeks, and it dawned on me that he’d been super pale ever since we’d left for the Underealm.
He’d gone to feed at the whore house in the village, but he’d still been pale when he’d returned.
He hadn’t done it. I knew it in my soul. He hadn’t slept with anyone since me, and he needed it. He needed to feed, and I needed him to feed only on me.
He was mine.
I stroked his cheek and lightly kissed his brow. No more running. No more pretending.
I needed to pee.
Five minutes later, I padded out of the room in search of food. Being fed on was hungry work. The corridors were dark, but there was enough moonlight to see by. In fact, the sky was beginning to get decidedly gray. Where were the kitchens in this place? The scent of coffee found me and drew me around a corner and down a flight of stairs into an open plan kitchen with an epic view of the sea.
Asmodeus sat at a table nursing a mug and looking out at the expanse.
“The sun is about to come up,” he said. “Would you like to watch it with me?”
“Is there any more coffee?”
He smiled and jerked his head to a coffee pot on the counter. All the benefits of technology, eh.
I found a mug in the cupboard above the coffee pot, poured myself a cup, and joined him at the table.
“You’ll have to
be stubborn,” Asmodeus said. “You’ll have to hold on hard even when he pushes you away.” He sounded nostalgic. “You mustn’t give up.”
“Did you give up?”
His smile was upside down. “Yes. And I regretted it ever since.”
“You loved him?”
“I did, and I thought he loved me too, but I realize now his attraction was merely admiration. He admired and idolized me, but love…Mal hasn’t loved anyone until you.”
My pulse fluttered. “How do you know he loves me?”
“Lust is my gift in the Underealm, but once, eons ago, when I lived in the Beyond, my affinity was love.”
He was a fallen angel like Samael, Mammon, and Belphegor. “You were thrown out of the Beyond?”
“No, we chose to leave, to forge a new path. But there are only a handful of us originals left now.”
“The princes that ruled the circles.”
“Yes,” he said. “Conah told me you spent the majority of your life among the mortals. You have a human mother.”
I nodded.
“Your humanity will be the anchor that will save Malachi from his inner demons. You see, humans build machines and weapons of mass destruction in the name of ensuring peace, when in truth, the most powerful weapon is forever in their arsenal if they chose to use it.”
“And what is that?”
“Love.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded, as I absorbed his words.
“Love him, Felton. Love him with all your heart, and you might succeed in saving him from himself.”
We sipped our coffee as the sun came up, coloring the sea amber and orange. And I came to the conclusion that Asmodeus wasn’t a dick after all.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The drake loaned to us by Asmodeus carried us over the Circle. From high above, it was possible to see the remnants of the walls that had once separated the circles. Some had crumbled, others still stood like towering monuments, and huge arcs had been cut into them to accommodate roads. The closer we got to Imperium, the more modern the terrain became. Obsidian towers that glittered as if they were set with gems, and domed structures that reflected the sunlight became the norm. And then a wall of shimmering crimson rose up into the air, curving back on itself.
I leaned out of the window, wanting to see better. “What is that?”
“It’s a ward,” Conah said. “It protects Imperium from unwanted guests. There is only one way in, via the main checkpoint.”
The carriage shuddered as we began our descent, and beside me, Conah stiffened.
Mal pressed his lips together. “It’ll be fine, Con. We play ignorant and stick to the plan.”
Conah nodded tightly, and my stomach churned. It was highly likely that Lilith or someone with access to a royal seal wanted Conah out of the way. They’d tried to have him kidnapped, but now that had failed, there was a high possibility they’d try something more drastic. For all we knew, we were about to enter the lion’s den.
I covered Conah’s hand with mine and squeezed. “We stick together. One of us with you at all times. Got it?”
“Unless one of you plans to share my room, I doubt that will be possible,” Conah replied.
“Then one of us will share your room,” Mal said.
The drake landed, and the carriage shuddered. I swallowed my nerves and smiled brightly at the guys. “It’s three nights. We can do this.”
Problem was, a lot of shit could go down in three nights.
I barely registered the various checkpoints we passed on the way to the Keep. Four, I think. At the last one, Conah returned with three pins. He passed one to Mal and one to me and slipped the other onto his cloak. As we continued our journey, the towers grew taller and the air so cold Mal and Conah were forced to flank me to keep me warm. My human heritage meant I couldn’t withstand this subzero temperature like the pure demons. Even though Conah was a son of Adam, so also part human, his bloodline had been raised in the Underworld, so he had adapted to the environment. He was pure demon in every way.
The world outside the windows was a metropolis made of ice.
“That’s Shoel tech.” Mal pointed out the window to a massive domed building made of reflective glass. “Lilith’s baby,” he added. “The technologies created by Shoel power the whole of the Underworld. At least the parts that choose to accept it.”
An obsidian arch loomed up ahead. The inside of the arch shimmered like water. It had to be a portal.
The carriage came to a halt, and Conah pushed open the door.
“We have to go through the portal,” Mal said. “It’ll take us straight to the Keep. The pins give us access.”
I stepped out onto the snow that went halfway up my calf and followed Conah to the portal. The etchings on the stone glowed crimson as we approached.
“They’re reacting to the pins,” Mal explained. He took my hand for a moment, and we laced fingers. “Just follow my lead when we get there, and don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”
He was worried about me. About Lilith seeing through the glamour and the façade.
We hadn’t spoken about last night, but he hadn’t pulled away from me either. Things were different between us now. Better.
I squeezed his hand. “It’s going to be okay. And when we get back, you and I are going on a date.”
I felt his gaze on the side of my face but kept my eyes on the portal.
“A date?”
He said it as if he’d never been on one.
“Uh-huh, we’ll go for a meal and then catch a movie, maybe even go ice skating. Can you skate?”
“Fee…I…”
“We’re doing it, Mal. We’re going to do it all.”
He sighed and kissed my temple. “It’s a date.”
Hope unfurled in my chest, and then we stepped through the portal. The world splintered and reformed in an entranceway carved from obsidian and gilded with gold. A burly demon, bare-chested but wearing pants that were too tight to be decent, greeted us.
“Lilith awaits.” He padded barefoot across cream marble floors toward a massive set of double doors that swished open, sliding into the walls as we approached. My heart thudded painfully in my chest as we entered the vast chamber held up by pillars and hung with golden tapestries. I recognized this room. I’d seen it in Azazel’s memory, and there she was, sitting on her throne made of gems.
Lilith.
Except she wasn’t dressed in figure-hugging robes, and she wasn’t wearing an opulent crown. She was garbed in black-and-gold pants and a tunic. Her hair was pulled back off her face and woven into hundreds of braids, and she was sipping from a golden goblet.
She looked totally badass, and she wasn’t alone. A male daemon sat on the dais at the foot of the throne, one leg dangling off the ledge, the other boot braced on it, so his knee was bent with his wrist resting casually on it. He was dressed in tight trousers, soft leather boots, and an open waistcoat that left his lithe, muscled chest bare. His skin was a steely blue that gleamed in the warm light, and strange navy-blue patterns were visible beneath the waistcoat, trailing up over his collarbone, his neck, and over his cheek before spiraling up to hug the horns on his head. Black horns that curved away from his face. His hair was a deep royal blue, loose and wild around that dangerous face—straight nose with flared nostrils, a wide slash of a mouth in a slender face, and yellow cat’s eyes that were fixed on me. He looked as if he could leap, twist, and climb. He looked as if he could fight. He looked…wicked.
Keon. It had to be.
For a moment, I was transfixed by him, and then movement behind him drew my attention. A steely blue appendage tipped with an arrowhead curved over his shoulder to rest on his pectoral.
A tail.
He had a fucking tail.
He canted his head, eyes narrowing speculatively, and I tore my attention away from him and fixed it on Lilith. She set her goblet down on the table by her throne, her dark, penetrating gaze roving over Mal, Conah, and then me. She
lingered on me a moment, and my pulse sped up. Could she see? Could she see through the glamour? But then her focus was back on Conah, and her perfect pout curved in a welcoming smile.
“Conah, son of Adam, blood of my veins, welcome home.”
Conah inclined his head and fell to one knee. Mal did the same, shooting me a look that urged me to copy the greeting. I did so, keeping my head down.
“Rise, rise, my sons.”
We got to our feet, but I kept my eyes down, not wanting to draw her attention.
“And where is my son, Azazel?”
“Your Highness, Azazel will be here for the wedding,” Conah said. “He had urgent Dominus business to attend to.”
She canted her head, and her eyes narrowed. “Dominus business that would take him to Heresat to visit Leviathan?”
Conah’s mouth parted, and then he snapped it closed.
“You are too wise, my queen,” Mal said. “Azazel dances to his own tune.”
“And you cover for him,” Lilith sighed. “My son has always played by his own rules. No doubt, he will come to see me when he is ready to do so.”
She sounded sad, and I couldn’t help but look up at her. Shit, she was looking right at me.
“And you,” she said. “Raised in the human realm. Lost to us until the scythe found you. How are you settling into your new world?”
Shit, shit, I needed to speak. I cleared my throat. “I’m settling in well, my queen. It’s an honor to serve you.”
“It pains me that you were left out of the fold for so long. Your blood sire was negligent.” She looked to Conah. “Have you ascertained his bloodline? He must have celestial blood to be chosen.”
Celestial as in one of the fallen angels, one of the original bloodlines.
“No, my queen. Not yet,” Conah replied.
“Hmmm. No matter. I’m sure the culprit will step forward to claim credit eventually. After all, a Dominus is a prize to be flaunted by any bloodline, and it’s a rare occurrence for the Dominus not to be from my blood.” She studied me for a long beat, eyes boring into me. “No, you are not my blood.” She picked up her goblet and took a sip. “I trust your journey was pleasant? I was told you arrived in Asmodeus’s carriage.” A deliberate pause. “Why is that?”
Reaper Unveiled (Deadside Reapers Book 4) Page 13