“In every way imaginable. Better. Freer. I might even be smiling.” He kissed the top of her head, the only part of her he could reach. She wanted to feel his arms around her, but she’d made a promise to Parker—keep him tied up for another ten minutes, just in case. Hopefully by then the lights would come back on and she’d have enough energy to go get her knife.
“That was, without a doubt,” he said, “the best and worst moment of my entire existence. How about next time we do it, we skip all the bad parts?”
“I don’t know. That was my first time sleeping with a demon.”
“Oh, there will be no sleeping, babe. Not a wink until we know for sure. Actually, we’ll need at least a few dozen trials before we can judge accurately, so we should get started right away.”
She laughed. “I’m gonna need a few minutes to breathe.” She rested her forearms on his chest, her chin on top of them, content beyond anything she’d ever felt. Happier. Freer. Strange, seeing how she’d just given up a vital piece of herself.
“Do all human women feel as good as you do?”
“Davyn!” She ducked her head down and laughed. “I don’t know. I’ve never—”
“Don’t get all human about it—it was just a question. Seriously, help me understand why you’re all not a lot nicer to each other, if there’s a possibility of this happening when you are.”
“Probably because we all get too human about it.” She paused, remembering fondly. “Plus, that’s not how it usually feels.”
“Listen, we can play around with bondage as much as you want later, but right now I’d really like to touch you.” He sighed when she didn’t respond or move to get him out of the ropes. The bed frame squeaked when he pulled against it, and the contraction of his pecs and shoulders almost knocked her onto the floor.
“I need to be sure nothing else is going to happen.” She rubbed the right muscles on his chest, trying to get them to relax. “Just a little longer, okay?”
“I get it, I do. It’s smart, but it’s a shitty time to start protecting yourself from me. I can feel you inside me now—your soul. As if you weren’t too much of a distraction before.”
It had been a few minutes, enough time to know he was who he should be. But today more improbable things had gone her way than ever before. She’d used up a few lifetime’s worth of good luck. Screw it. She needed to feel his arms around her.
As she climbed off him, she caught her foot on his hip, and grabbed onto him to keep from falling headfirst onto the floor. “Feel kind of shaky.” Understatement.
“Your body needs time to adjust. Mine gained something that yours lost. Don’t worry about it. Relax and enjoy seeing me naked and bound. Granted, you’ll be seeing a lot more of the me-naked part. No more salt though, deal?”
Oh no, she’d forgotten about the salt. “My knife is on your dresser.” With the rest of her weapons. Her first attempt at standing was a huge fail, and she fell back onto the bed. “I’m sorry. How bad do the ropes hurt?”
“I’ll live. Relax, hunter. The hard parts are over.”
“Right.” They were both free. She took a deep breath. “Can’t wait to start fighting over stuff like who ate the last cookie or who didn’t put away their stakes after they were done with them.”
“No more fighting. Not between us. ’Kay?” Davyn flinched, and his muscles didn’t release right away. “Untie me. Now, hunter.”
“Wow, that was quick. What happened to me relaxing, you living, and neither of us fighting for a while?”
“It’s not a joke,” he said quietly. “Cut me out of these things right now.”
“Just a sec, I’m kind of dealing with something right now. So excuse me if I’m not moving as fast as you want me too.” She stretched, testing her muscles, feeling as impatient as he sounded. Her legs still shook from a fraction of her body weight. Damn it! If this was a normal reaction to demon sex, they were going to have problems. At least her vision was clearing.
“I can go through lava faster than you’re moving.”
“Thanks for the observation, but it’s totally unhelpful.” She didn’t understand why he sounded so on edge. “What are you not telling me?”
“Don’t freak out.”
“More proof you’ve never cared about a woman before. You can’t just say, ‘Don’t freak out,’ and not have her—”
“I’m so very disappointed in you, chérie.”
She spun when she heard Lamere’s voice, squinting into the darkness. No, he can’t be here.
“I told you not to freak out,” Davyn grumbled, “at least not until I was untied.”
“You’re supposed to be in hell.” Her voice didn’t totter nearly as much as her legs did as she stood to face the vampire’s blurry image. “I watched that female beat you.” How could he have come back from that?
“Perhaps you should have stayed to watch me tear her arms off her body. Then her legs. Then her head.” His tone wasn’t hostile or cruel. It was patronizing. “She was angry at me for sending her to hell, so now she never has to return.” Which meant he’d scattered pieces of her in the bay. “A true Champion cannot be beaten, ma belle. You should know this.”
“Keira, take these things off me,” Davyn whispered, “and then get the fuck out of here.”
Not even close. The vampire yanked her back by her hair and threw her into the wall across the room. She grunted when she hit. Her instincts wouldn’t help her, her skills, strength, all useless now. After two failed attempts to get to her feet, she pulled herself up, the wall behind her the only thing keeping her that way.
“Disgusting.” Lamere grabbed a t-shirt off the dresser, knocking some of her weapons onto the ground. “No one but I will ever see you unclothed again.”
Her reactions were too slow to catch the shirt before it hit her with just enough force to unbalance her. But she was just as grateful to have it while sitting on the floor as she would’ve been standing. It was Davyn’s and covered her from neck almost down to her knees, hiding her body from her enemy.
“You’re supposed to be down under, vamp!” Davyn called out. “What happened? The Devil didn’t want you either?” He threw out insults or more depraved suggestions than he had when she first caught him. She knew he was trying to give her a chance to get away. Unfortunately, she was going to need a lot more than a chance.
Less than thirty feet away, Davyn couldn’t do anything but watch her be destroyed. Lay where she’d trapped him and witness her death.
Forty-Three
It was useless. All of it. Everything they’d been through today and every other day. The world didn’t want Keira to be happy. She was knocked over by a fucking t-shirt. How could she fight a vampire who’d escaped death so many times?
“Get up!” Davyn screamed. “Don’t let him win. He’s nothing compared to you. Nothing. Show him who you are, hunter.”
“I can’t.” She wasn’t afraid, didn’t curl up in a ball and pray he would end it fast like she had in his dungeon. Her muscles just weren’t working. Now that she finally understood how to heal, her body had betrayed her, left her weak and hurting.
“You beat me, hunter! A demon. That’s impossible, but you did it. You changed me. So get off the fucking ground, and do it again. Change him into dust.”
She wanted to scream back at him, tell him to stop asking her to do something she couldn’t. Lamere’s nails dug into her scalp when he grabbed her hair and yanked her to her feet.
“You gave away what was mine,” Lamere whispered as he pulled her flush to him. Cold. Unyielding. “Your soul is lessened now. You are lessened.”
“Bullshit,” Davyn called. “Who you gonna believe, hunter? Him or me.” Something in his voice broke through her clouded reality. This wasn’t just about her. She was responsible for Davyn, and he was responsible for her. Right now, it was her turn to find a way out for both of them.
“The demon ruined you.”
She took a deep breath. Her soul had made it through t
he worst shit imaginable. She hadn’t given it away—she’d shared it with the man she loved, who believed in her. Who made her stronger. Lamere wanted her weakness, enjoyed her pain and tears.
Fuck him. He couldn’t have any more.
“I’m not ruined.” Her voice was quiet but firm. If she could live through tonight, she would have another chance to dust the vampire, when she was strong enough to do it. Tomorrow or the night after, the first moment he let his guard down. Until then, the only thing that mattered was keeping both parts of her soul above the ground. Whatever she had to do to make that happen, she’d do. “It’s like you said—I belong to you.”
“Yet you gave yourself to him.”
“That was a mistake.” She swallowed her hate, knowing the deal she had to make. “But we can start over. Our bond could be as strong as his and mine, stronger even, because your blood holds so much power.”
“What are you doing?” Davyn shouted.
Lamere’s grip on her arm released slightly. Her legs held more of her weight but not enough to fight him.
“Turn me into who you want me to be. Bond us together in blood.” She didn’t think she’d said it loudly, certainly not loud enough for Davyn to hear over his shouting, but he had.
“Don’t do this, Keira!”
“Turn me,” she repeated, tilting her head to expose her neck. “Forget about him. He doesn’t matter.” Lamere was going to kill her—if not now then eventually, unless she wasn’t human. If she died right now, Davyn would go to Level Nine with half a soul. If she became immortal, he’d be free.
“I don’t know what the demon told you, but he would never stay with you.” Lamere scraped her collarbone, down her chest between her breasts, cutting new lines across her skin. “It is impossible for a demon to care about anyone but himself. Whatever good he promised, he cannot deliver. He only knows hell.” When his finger reached her scars, the pressure softened to a caress that traced the lines. “We will keep him bound until I find a way to rip your soul out of him and return it to you. Then once I wipe him from your mind, you will be mine again.”
“Not this way, hunter,” Davyn called. She met his eyes, pleading for him to understand, or come up with a better idea. If there was another way to ensure he wouldn’t go back to hell now, she didn’t know what it was. “He’s wrong about both of us. You know he is, so tell him he’s full of shit and remind me why I love you.”
Why he…?
Lamere’s fangs scratched her neck when he laughed. “What did you just say, demon?”
“I wasn’t talking to you, asshole.”
Forty-Four
Davyn knew why Keira was doing this, why she thought it was the only way, and why she was wrong. She’d forgotten how negotiation worked in his world, and how good he was at it. Just like he’d forgotten this place had stopped being his home as soon as he went back to hell. So the magic and wards he’d used to keep people the fuck out of his life were powerless, and the worst riffraff could just let themselves in.
He no longer felt the ropes sawing into his skin, deeper than before, when he would’ve killed everyone on earth to get free. Now his freedom meant more, so there was only one jerkoff he wanted to kill, and one woman he’d trade his life for. All he had to do was figure out how to get the first part done, without having to give up the other. While strapped down to a bed.
If Lamere turned her into a vampire, she’d lose herself forever. Every time she fed, felt the bond his blood would create, or looked in a mirror, she would see a monster. She’d already given half of her soul to someone undeserving. Davyn couldn’t let her give up any more.
“Now I’m talking to you, vamp.” He waited until Lamere looked up from Keira’s neck. “Does it hurt? Knowing she gave herself to me willingly. I didn’t have to chain her up to have her. In fact…” He yanked the bindings. “I got the impression she wants to keep me around a while.”
“What are you doing?” she mouthed, wide-eyed.
Trying to convince the vampire that he didn’t want her as she was, and she’d never be his unless she got her soul back. But Davyn couldn’t say that. She’d understand eventually—sooner was better because he could use her help. “I probably owe you something for teaching her how to tie knots, though. Having her on top of me and not having to do any of the work was pretty damn incredible.”
If all this was about to end, holding anything back seemed extra fucking stupid. But it only became an imperative when Lamere slid an arm around her waist to cup her breast, pulling her back to him possessively.
“Actually,” Davyn said. “The only thing better is the way her lips feel when she kisses me, and the way they move when she laughs. I told her it was a terrible idea to fall for a demon, but she doesn’t listen too well, you know?” He grimaced. “Maybe you don’t know, seeing how everything you do with her is against her will.” He stopped when Keira looked at her feet, picking up one then the other, testing her balance and strength.
The bitterness in Lamere’s voice was louder than the words, clearer. “Perhaps I should let you enjoy each other in hell, then.” Nope, that wasn’t going to work.
“You think the Devil is going to want two people making googly eyes at each other and going at it every time they get a chance? No way. It’s bad for company morale.”
The bastard’s eyes mirrored what was going through his mind—Lamere hated the idea of them being together more than he would hate losing her. “You will be sent to the ninth level. There are eight other levels where your Master could put her.”
“That’s not how it works. In three hundred fucking years, you haven’t learned anything about physics?” Davyn kept talking, because if he let the vamp think about it, he’d realize just how full of shit the demon was and how right he was—the Devil would never let them be together. Nobody followed rules in hell, but deals were never broken. “Here’s the deal”—he drew the word out for as long as he could, staring her right in the eyes—“She’s my anchor to this world. Now let’s talk about what anchors do.”
“They sink,” she said, looking relieved. “All the way to the bottom.”
“You’re so much smarter than he is, babe.” Davyn tried to convey strength to someone who would forever be stronger than he was. “The big man wouldn’t be happy about it, but even demons have a rule we can’t break, a job requirement we can’t refuse.”
“Unless a deal was involved,” the hunter said. The corner of her mouth curled up. The vampire didn’t recognize it because he’d only ever seen her cry and scream—he’d never seen her happy. Never made her smile. And he didn’t believe in her like Davyn did. “To make it so we didn’t need to stay near each other.”
“Why did you tell him that, hunter?” Davyn reacted immediately, in a way Lamere would understand. “I take it all back. You’re as stupid as he is. I’m now the proud owner of half an idiot’s soul. Great. I should probably make the deal myself, just to get rid of this thing.” He fell back against the pillow disgustedly, but kept his head turned in their direction so he could see what happened next.
“Does your Master have that power?” Lamere asked him. “To sever the bond?”
“Why would I tell you that?”
“Because I could kill her and send you back right now.” Lamere picked her up by the throat, lifting her to her feet, but not releasing her. All of Davyn’s internal cursing and fighting did fuck-all to help her.
“You can make him a deal,” she forced out in a raspy whisper. “Trade something. If you tell a demon you want to see his Master, he can’t refuse.” Except for Davyn, because the soul she’d shared with him freed him from hell and its rules. But in this case, that was exactly what they needed Lamere to do. Once he went down through the gate, he’d never be able to come back out.
“With a soul, the demon would be trapped below whether a deal was struck or not, and we would be free of him.” Lamere relaxed his grip, doubt replaced by his never-ending supply of overconfidence. “The Treaty magic will keep
anyone from ever finding us, and things will return to what they are meant to be. I cannot be beaten.”
Never looking away from Davyn, Keira swallowed and let the vampire pull her closer. “Once you say the incantation, he has to do what you tell him. Not even the magic of the bindings will matter.” Almost true. The magic infused into them wasn’t strong enough to overcome the power of the incantation, but the salt would still hurt like a bitch. He’d live.
“And here I thought you liked me,” Davyn said to her, playing his part.
“Sorry, but you’re not worth the pain of hell.”
The vampire paused, looking from one to the other, hopefully not to decide he was better off killing both of them. Davyn waited silently, not wanting to miss a single word, sending out a prayer to hell to make it happen soon, because this bullshit was sucking all the patience out of his new soul.
“You will take me to your Master to procure a deal.”
Ugh. We may be here a while. The demon clenched his lips together, unable to help the vampire along without proving how badly he wanted him to speak the incantation correctly. Two words close together was all it would take.
Come on, asshole. Say his name.
“You will take me to him,” the vampire said angrily. “Now.”
No, not “him.” Devil, Satan, Diable, Lucifer, Princeps Tenebrarum. The language didn’t matter, but the name did. And a pronoun didn’t cut it.
“I don’t even know who you’re talking about,” he mocked, avoiding Keira’s nervous eyes. “I’m going to take a little nap while you’re figuring it out.” He yawned widely and wiggled a little to get comfortable on the bed. “Wake me up if anything interesting happens.”
“The Devil and I will strike a deal and—”
“Close enough,” Davyn said, his eyes popping open again. Power flowed back into him. His body lightened and became non-corporeal but with a little something extra—freedom. It felt fucking great. Especially to get out of those ropes. Now nothing in the physical world could control him…except for the little brunette with the hopeful eyes over there. And because of her, hell couldn’t control him either.
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