by Claire Marta
I crouch over her remains, observing the other vamps, who are out cold. I haven’t even broken a sweat. Their egos must be inflated if they ever thought they could snatch the Devil’s daughter. Who would have a death wish though? I don’t see these three as masterminds behind the attempted abduction, and we’ve never had trouble with vampires in the past. They fall under the night hordes. Creatures of darkness who are bound by the laws of darkness to follow the Devil’s rule.
One at a time, I transport them down into the dungeon. I should dust them, too, but logic calls for answers. Lucifer will be pissed when he learns of this attack. If this is something more sinister, we need to know. Teleporting everywhere is taxing, but I won’t risk anything else.
A high frightened cry reaches me when I appear back in the nursery. Snatching up the discarded towel, I hurriedly knot it in place, covering my modesty.
“Hey. Hey. Uncle Raz is going to take care of you, don’t cry, Juliana.” Scooping her up, I rock her against my chest soothing her upset. “I know those big scary bloodsuckers scared you, but they’re going to be terrified of me when I’m done with them. You can have their fangs as a toy. Would you like that, baby girl?”
Green watery eyes latch onto mine. Soft, small, her chubby little hands reach for mine. Gently giving her my finger, her smaller ones fasten around it, clinging on tightly. The thought of them hurting her makes me want to protect her with a savage need. This child and her mother have become like family. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep them safe.
Collecting her favorite teddy and the bright yellow blanket, I vanish only to reappear in a corridor elsewhere in the fortress. Fist pounding on Cassandra’s door, it takes a minute for her to answer. “Get your shit together. I’m taking you to Gabriel.”
The teenage girl’s blue-eyed gaze flicks down my half naked body, a pink slash brightening her cheeks in a blush. “Why are you in nothing but a towel?”
Handing her the baby, I ignore her question. “Look after Juliana until I return and lock your door. Don’t open it for anyone but me. There’s something I need to do.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jane
Murmuring softly, consciousness seeps into my awareness. There’s a tender ache between my legs. Rolling over, I discover I’m alone in the big bed. Scooping up the pillow on the other side of the mattress, I hug it to my breasts. A masculine scent infuses the material, triggering a needy throb in my core.
Raziel.
He’d taken me so many times everything had become a blur of hands, hot lips, and thrusting. The alien intrusion of the first time had been wiped away in the aftermath. I shiver remembering how he’d found the perfect spot to make me scream and cry. Fingers, mouth, cock, he’d been relentless.
Sex.
Not even my romance books prepared me for the reality. It was intense. All consuming. The dirty things Raziel whispered in my ear made me blush. He certainly hadn’t disappointed.
Languidly, I stretch, my lazy gaze taking in my surroundings. His bedroom is furnished lavishly in different shades of blue. Large and solid, a wardrobe takes up one side. A carved wooden chair sits in a corner with a plump red cushion on the seat in front of a plasma TV. A stack of DVD’s lean precariously beneath the screen, which is fixed to the wall. Casino chips lay discarded on a table. Half stuffed into their packet, some playing cards sit abandoned. Another door leads into a bathroom and a second into a living room. Surveying the wall hangings, I admire the intricately stitched crests in black and gold. It’s a far cry from my own bedroom. His childhood must have been very different than mine to live in such luxury.
Memories creep up.
The sear of the red-hot metal poker greeting my shoulder has me screaming louder. Cheeks wet with my tears of remorse and failure, I jerk in my chains with the pain.
“Did you think you could run away so easily, Jane?” Arianna taunts softly from above. “Sixteen and you should know better by now. You disappoint us, girl.”
“Please.” My tiny sob is met with another press of the cruel glowing iron. Pain blooms over the abused skin. My body will heal quickly, but the mental scars of this torture will remain. The spark of rebellion that had taken root inside me dying a quick death.
“Where did you think you were going to go?”
Naked, at her mercy in the crude, rock cell, I know lying will only result in more torment. “I just wanted to see the palace…”
Bringing the tip of the poker up, she swings it gently from side to side, its heat licking hungrily at my skin. “This is your place, and there is no escaping your duty. That comes first above all things. Do you understand? Nothing else matters but our cause, which you must see through to the end. You’ll see the Kingdom in time enough.”
My flesh crawls with the remembered agony. It hadn’t been the first lesson or the last.
The sensation of being watched sweeps over me. Sitting up, I discover the source standing in the middle of the room.
My dark Angel.
Towel encircling his powerful hips, his toned, hard packed muscles are on display. He’s doesn’t say a word but stands staring at me intensely.
“Raziel?”
The look on his face is terrifying. Empty.
“Raz, what’s happened?” I ask softly, worry rising. “Is the baby ok?”
Stalking toward the bed, a dangerous energy throbs around him. His silence is disturbing. The passionate lover of last night gone, replaced by a cold detached stranger. Tugging the end of the towel, he lets it drop to the floor.
The sight of him naked blurs thoughts into the far recesses of my mind. My body burns with need, despite how sore it is. All that matters is touching him, kissing his mouth, his abs, trailing my way down to his waiting cock. I want him on top of me, beneath me. Any which way to achieve the pleasure I’d experienced before.
He mounts the bed in three strides.
Reaching out, my palms meet hard, firm flesh.
Gripping the back of my neck, his mouth lands on mine. The kiss is different, cruel, rougher. This version of Raz is all dominating and controlling.
Obeying when he pushes me down, I willingly hook my legs around his hips. Looming between my thighs, his nostrils flare, brown eyes dilating.
Chapter Eighteen
Raziel
Conspiracy and lies.
How could I have started to trust her? This was a mistake. I can see now getting herself into trouble at Titianna’s must have been a way to soften me up. To stir my morality. Pity for her I don’t have any, and I’m about to teach her that.
The need for revenge beats loudly through my head.
Does she think she’s gotten away with the perfect crime? What comes next is all on her.
Splaying her thighs, I rub my cock against her mound so close to her pussy I know it would take only a second to sink into her heat. One thrust is all it would take.
“Raz, please,” she begs on a breath needy moan.
She used my own desire against me. Wielded lust and the need to have her as a weapon.
It just makes me want her even more with a demand to ruin her and make her mine one last time. One last taste of rainbows and cupcakes. One last ride. Her sweet juices are already drenching my groin. She wants this as badly as I do.
Hands wrapped around her hips, I don’t stop rolling my own against her, trying to gain some relief.
Tink’s moans grow louder. “Yes, now, please now. I want you.”
Shoving her down flat on the mattress, I loom over her, groaning in my chest with an inhuman sound. I’ve never seen anything so perfect. Tits heaving with her pants, the locks of her multi-colored hair tumble out over the dark sheets of the bed. It’s a shame it’s all a pretty illusion.
Wrapping a fist around the base of my erection, I tease the tip against her wet folds. I don’t bother with a condom. This time, I want her to experience every inch of me without a rubber in the way. To have my cum burn her as I fill her up with it.
Hissing
through my teeth, her heat scalds me. Not giving myself a second to hesitate, I drive in balls deep.
She gives a pretty cry, arching into me. It just makes me want to hear her scream like she did last night. I get off on the fact I’m hurting her. She deserves it after all her deceit. Tink may have given me her innocence, but she’s nothing but a deceitful bitch. She threatened my home. My family. For that she’s going to pay.
Shackling her wrists with a hand I hold them above her head. No way am I letting her touch me. Not this time.
Confusion washes over her freckled features. “Raz?”
“This is happening on my terms, you lying little bitch. Understand?”
“What are you…”
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear it.”
She flinches at my harsh tone. “But why…”
Leaning over her, I shove my face into hers. “I said shut up. If I have to make you, I promise it’s going to hurt a lot more than this. I’m not kind. Don’t fool yourself that I’m gentle. I don’t give a fuck about your feelings or emotions. Now take it like a good whore because that’s all you are to me.”
Tink goes limp. The fight draining out of her as a look of hopelessness and defeat settles over her beautiful countenance. Tears well in her eyes. Blinking her long luscious eyelashes, they sparkle on the tips before sliding down her cheeks. Turning her head away she clenches her eyes shut tightly.
I won’t be swayed by her crocodile tears.
She lied to me. This is just another manipulation to get something she wants. Tangling fingers in her hair I force her face back to mine. “Open your eyes and start praying for deliverance because you’re not going to find it on the end of my dick.”
I could easily flip her on her belly, take her from behind, but I want to see her when I have her like this. Cold and unfeeling without a hint of mercy. Did she really think she could play me?
Water logged eyelashes flick up. Tink’s breath catches in her throat as I begin to thrust. The desolation in her expression sends something akin to guilt twinging through my chest, but I ignore it.
Fuck she’s wet. Her body betrays just how much of a slut she is. My hips meet hers in a punishing pace. Pumping in and out of her, I set a harsh rhythm that has her twisting in discomfort as the bed thuds beneath us.
A wail leaves her throat, every little sound of pain she makes has me fucking her harder. As her teeth bite down on her lip, I know she’s holding in the urge to scream.
This isn’t meant to bring her pleasure. My intentions are punishment.
Silent tears still streaming down her cheeks, she takes everything I have to give.
Thrusting a few more times, I shudder my cum spurting thickly against her womb.
Pulling out, I feel her wince.
“Why?” she whispers so softly I almost don’t catch it.
Grabbing her by a fistful of rumbled rainbow hair, I drag her off the bed her pussy still oozing cum down her lovely legs.
“Raz, please. Why are you so angry? Why are you hurting me?” Tink pleads louder among sounds of pain.
Instead of answering her, I teleport us into the dungeons below.
Dank dark. The cell is the perfect place for a traitor.
A shudder runs through her when she raises her arms to cover her nakedness, but I just give a humorless laugh at her sudden need for modesty.
“Don’t get too comfortable. After I’ve tortured your friends, I’ll be back for you.” In a flash, I return to the bedroom leaving her a shivering fucked-up mess in the cold concrete box of a room.
The need to wash away her vanilla scent is a necessity. I don’t need any reminds of this temptress. Her sugary enticement. Sweetness can be deceptive, hiding something rotten laying beneath.
Stalking into the bathroom, I step into the shower and flip the water on as hot as it will go. It sears me, but I embrace it. Need to feel the burn.
The Devil will deal with her when he returns. I know I should have slit her throat for her betrayal, but for whatever reason, even the darkness in me finds the idea distasteful. Maybe I’ll ask him to keep her alive for a while so I can use her as my cumslut.
I’m brisk and efficient. Drying off, I dress quickly in jeans, trainers, and a black t-shirt.
There’s no way to know if more hired mercs are on the way. I need to have the girls out of here and in Ceasefire under guard.
Senses on alert, I teleport outside Cassandra’s room. The hallway is deserted, but unease still lingers.
Knuckles wrapping on her door, she opens it a crack. “What?”
“Time to go.”
Her eyes widen before she swings it wider. “Why do you look so pissed off?”
“We have vamps crawling all over the place, and I need to get you and the baby somewhere safe.” Hand flat on the wood, I force it enough to let me through. A pizza box is discarded on a wooden coffee table, magazines strewn around it. Paintings cover one wall. Disturbing images of monsters and places. Cass’s artwork but I’ve never seen her physically draw so much of her visions before. On another, tiny white fairy lights have been arranged in front of a black background to mirror the night sky. Juliana is laying on Cassandra’s bed. Big green eyes smiling, her tiny feet kick the air.
Tugging down the arms of her top, she crosses them over her chest, the dark-haired girl wanders to a backpack sitting idly in a chair. “What about the babysitter?”
If Cass thinks I’ve missed the fresh slashes of angry red on her skin, then she must think I’m an idiot. She’s been cutting herself with her niece in the room, or maybe it was before this fucked up mess started. All I know is I don’t have time to deal. Once everything is finished though, that’s another story. Whatever she’s trying to block out in her head is going to come out. I don’t care what I have to do to wheedle it out of her.
“She’s not coming with us. The only ones I’m worried about are you two.” I can’t quite strip my voice of the emotions that still grip me. I’m still high on the rage fuck I dealt my devious little fairy. All I can think about now is getting my hands on the bastards who were in on this with her.
I want her to hear their screams as I gut them. See their blood painted on my hands. Make her watch as I torture them. Then I plan to take her within an inch of her life.
In a couple of strides, I scoop the baby off the mattress. Gurgling, her chubby hands clutch the front of my top.
“And Rosella?”
“Do I have a fucking stutter?” Turning on Cass, I give her a glare. “Now get your arse here Baby Doll.”
Tossing me a scowl, she snatches up her bag before stomping to my side. I don’t wait for her to ask any more questions. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I transport us to somewhere not even a bunch of paid mercenaries would dare to attempt assaulting.
The scents of smoke, wood, and stale alcohol meet my nose. Around us, the Black Penny pub is busy as ever. Tables crowded with beings from Heaven, Hell, and everywhere else in between enjoy the freedom of letting loose in a place they don’t have to fight. A haven for the weary, the misfits, and those just trying to make a life.
Heads turn, our appearance garnering attention.
“What the hell are you doing here?” the gravelly voice booms from behind the bar. A wreath of golden hair framing his stern, rugged features, the archangel Gabriel assess me with a scowl. Dressed in leather and covered in tats of naked women, he’s a far cry from the pure beings that the humans think angels are. Built for war and combat like me, these heavenly hosts defend their own just as fiercely as the minions of Hell. Unlike the other Angelic beings who seem to have a bug up their arses when dealing with us, Gabriel actually cares. It’s not just the fact Mavi, the Devil’s mate, is his granddaughter, he’s been the liaison between the two domains since this all started.
“I need you to babysit for a while.”
Sky blue eyes narrow. “What happened?”
Prowling to the bar, Juliana is still tucked safely in the crook of my arm. I do
n’t want to give her to anyone I don’t trust. Although Cease Fire is a safe zone, I’m still on alert. “Vampires attacked the fortress.”
Gabriel’s mouth drops open. He stares at me as if I’ve suddenly grown a second head. “They what?”
“I’m handling it,” I assure him. I know my job. Been doing it long enough to know what it entails. This is the second breach we’ve had in a year. The last one was part of the Devil’s plan. I’m damn certain he didn’t have a hand in this one.
Striding around the bar, the archangel ignores the customers waiting to buy drinks, sending any, who try to grab his attention a glare. “The fuck you are! This is exactly the reason Lucifer should let the bodyguards I assigned into Hell watch the girls.”
Carefully I deposit the baby into his outstretched, brawny arms. “Your Angels don’t belong in his domain. Unless you want to see how long it takes for us to corrupt them. It’s never going to work; you know that.”
Juliana gurgles, her big innocent eyes on the new male who dotes on her like crazy. Princess of darkness, she has everyone wrapped around her wicked little finger.
Face softening at the bundle of joy now cradled protectively in his arms, Gabriel’s voice becomes a croon. “Where are the vamps who attacked you? Give me names and descriptions. I’ll soon have a dozen not so friendly Angels breathing down their necks. We haven’t dished out some justice for a while, and dusting some fangers would be right up our alley.”