by Eve Newton
“You are lying,” I spit out. “He wouldn’t say that.”
“Oh, but he did, and I know that it changes things with you,” Evan says.
“Why are you doing this?” I implore him quietly, wringing my hands.
“Because this is what I was sent here to do,” Evan says simply. “I knew you would tell me eventually, so I played along. Now, I need to go and convince my lord and master not to rip my head off with his teeth for taking so damn long,” he says lightly, but his eyes are telling me a different story. They are full of warning and fear, causing a shot of panic to flash through me at the same time that Dashel snarls and shoves me behind him.
“She is going back whether she wants to or not,” a raspy voice coming from in front of Dashel’s massive form says.
“Shit!” I cry, clutching at my chest to cover up my tits as I peek around Dashel to see Darius’s armored chest. “Eek!” I squeal like a girl and duck back behind my Angel. I haven’t decided what to do, but I know one thing, I will not be dragged back to Hell by this monster. No fucking way. I go on my own terms, simple as that.
“He won’t protect you,” Darius says as Dashel gets enough power coiled in his palm to kill a whole horde of Demons. But Darius is already ready. He holds out his hand and a sliver of red electricity escapes his palm, directed straight at Evan.
“No!” I scream as the bolt of magic hits Evan square in the chest.
He gapes in surprise and then drops to his knees before he keels over, dead at my feet.
~ CHAPTER ELEVEN ~
Axelle
“No!” I scream and drop to my knees as well, just as a flash of bright, white light appears behind me. I turn as I cradle Evan’s head in my lap, feeling the prick of something in my eyes. Tears? I have seen them many a time, but have never experienced them. I let them build up as I stare at Dashel in all of his majestic glory, brandishing a sword made of pure white energy at Darius.
“Be gone, Demon!” he roars at Darius, who couldn’t look more unconcerned if he tried.
Darius takes a lumbering step forward towards the Angel, who reacts in the split second, lashing out with his Heavenly sword and cleaving Darius from groin to neck in one swipe of the blade.
Darius lets out a roar of pain and surprise, as I whimper into Evan’s hair.
What in the name of all things unholy is going on here? All I wanted was to be left alone and now Luc’s minions are being smited left and right. I’m going to be in even more trouble now.
Especially seeing as how Luc knows exactly where I am now.
“Shit,” I mumble as Darius drops to his knees and then just seems to melt into the ground, disappearing. “You had better run,” I add, speaking to Dashel, absently stroking Evan’s hair. “Save yourself. He will come for you now.”
“I’d like to see him try,” Dashel sneers at me. “I’m not leaving you.” He looks down at Evan and gulps.
“You don’t understand,” I say, carefully placing Evan’s head back on the ground and standing up to meet Dashel eye-to-eye. “Darius was his personal guard. For that, he will be furious, but if you keep me from him now, he will make your death last an eternity.”
“I am not leaving you! You cannot go back to him! You cannot give him what he wants!” he exclaims, his hands outstretched, trying to grab me.
I stumble back when I feel the presence of my lord and master shimmer into view beside me, engulfed in the flames of Hell.
“Lay one hand on her and it will be the last thing you do,” Luc snarls at Dashel.
“Try and stop me,” Dashel says, gripping my wrist tightly with a grimace of concentration. Luc tries to reach out to grab my other wrist, but it’s too late. Dashel has taken me somewhere that Luc can’t follow.
It’s bright, light and white.
“Oh, crap,” I mutter as I look around the endless room. “Crap, crap, crap.”
Luc
“Fuck!” I roar into the sky with clenched fists. I fucking had her and then I lost her – again!
What is with this? This type of shit doesn’t happen to me. I knew that female was more trouble than she was fucking worth.
I shake my head. No, that’s not true at all. She is worth everything to me. I would take a thousand times the amount of trouble she has already given me, just to see if she is the one.
I look down at the blackening grass under my feet and with a grimace, step onto the slate tile that surrounds the swimming pool. It is in no way a prevention of my evil spreading, but as the tile isn’t alive, it will slow it down. Then, I look over at the dead Reaper and purse my lips. I crouch down with a frown and wipe away the moisture from Evan’s forehead with a frown. I rub my thumb over my damp finger. Tears? Axelle’s? She cried over the Reaper’s dead body? Why would she do that? Sorrow, remorse, is not something that is programmed into her, or any of them for that matter.
“You are just full of surprises, aren’t you, my dear,” I mutter, placing my hand on Evan’s forehead and bearing down slightly.
Evan’s eyes pop open and he gives me a startled, fearful look.
“Hello,” I say condescendingly. “You have some fucking explaining to do.”
“It’s not what you think,” Evan says, jumping up and holding out his hand. “I was working the angle. She is stubborn, difficult, but I made progress, before Darius showed up.”
I see him look around for the Demon guard and he straightens up. “Where is Axelle?” Evan asks slowly.
“That pesky Angel, Dashel, took her,” I say in annoyance. “Somewhere that rulers of Hell cannot follow.”
“What?” Evan splutters.
I reign in my temper as it will get me nowhere at the moment. I need to get my Demon Bound back home and back into her body where she belongs, before another trial hits her.
“I…” Evans starts, but I hold up my hand to silence the deceitful Reaper.
“I’m not done with you yet,” I say mildly.
“I swear to you; I was trying to get her to go back home. All I needed was the reason why she left to convince her,” Evan protests quickly.
“And did you find out that reason?” I ask, taking Evan by the arm and transporting us back to Hell and my practically dead Demon guard.
“Yes,” Evan says, avoiding my gaze. “You can trust me not to tell anyone,” he adds hastily.
“She told you?” I snap, angered at her betrayal, but needing to push it aside, for now.
“I pressed her, but I’m sure she was ready to come home to you. She loves you,” Evan says in a small voice.
“Hmm,” I mutter, feeling a warm glow settle out of the blue in my gut at those words. “But you love her.”
“I do. She is special,” Evan says. “Obviously.”
“What changed her mind?” I ask, unable to stop myself.
“She just needed to know that you wanted her to come back to you,” Evan says.
“Speaking of obvious,” I drawl, shaking my head.
“No, it’s all in the wording,” Evan says. “She reacted when I said that you wanted her to come home to you.”
I give him a scathing look. “What gives you the right to assume anything?”
“That is what you said,” Evan says. “I tested her, and she fell for it. Believe me or not, but all that matters now is that we get her back. I knew there was something hinky about that Angel aligning himself with her. He played her to get to her.”
“Like you?” I ask archly.
“Fuck you,” Evan snarls at me. “I love her, she loves me. I did what I had to do to bring her back here to you, so you could do your thing and then free her to be with me.”
“Oh, really?” I ask incredulously. “She said she loves you?”
“Yes,” Evan says, the smugness infuriating me. “But she loves you as well. I have no idea why; you are the biggest ass.”
“So are you, you fucking prick,” I snarl, but then take in a deep breath. This is getting us nowhere. “You said we need to get her back? We?”
“Yes, we,” Evan says steadily as his sister appears out of nowhere next to the nearly dead Demon.
“Evan!” she cries and rushes around to embrace him. “I was so worried.”
I watch with a raised eyebrow and an impatient tap of my foot.
“I’m okay,” he says, reassuring her. “Now.”
I meet his gaze as Evan sends me a grateful glance.
“I didn’t do it for you,” I say shortly, wishing now I’d left the Reaper eradicated and gone. Whatever Axelle feels for him is going to get in the way of what I need her for, but I made a split second decision to bring him back to show Axelle that I can be thoughtful to her needs.
Evan wisely keeps his mouth shut, having figured out why he was saved.
I shift my gaze to Jezebelle. “Well?” I ask.
“He is fine, or he will be,” she answers with a look at Darius.
“Good,” I say and stretch my back out slightly. I have already broken a major rule by bringing Evan back from the dead. I wasn’t really in the mood to do it again for Darius. Purely because he failed me in bringing Axelle back and now, she is captured and being held as Heaven’s prisoner. “Stay with him. I have things to do.”
“Time is ticking away,” Jezebelle says slyly. “That body is going to waste.”
“I will get her back in time,” I snap and vanish back to my bedroom to plot how I will get my woman back.
My woman?
My Demon bitch, I think with a nod.
The problem is, I have nothing to trade. Nothing at all, so if they want to keep her, there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it as she wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.
All I can do is appeal to my counterparts need to stick to the rules. They can’t interfere in my business this way. It just isn’t allowed and while I have no problem breaking the rules occasionally, I know that the other side won’t. Once Heaven is made aware of Axelle’s position, they will have no choice but to let her go or break the rules. Evan is wrong. Dashel must be working on his own and I can work with that.
Dashel
“Where am I?” Axelle asks me.
“Nowhere your boyfriend can get to you,” I respond coldly. I am keeping my distance from her because I need to think straight. I had to get her away from Luc and the only place I could bring her to where he couldn’t follow was back to Heaven. Only now, I’m back in Heaven, and so is she. This is a disaster.
“Pah,” she sneers. “Boyfriend. Right.” She turns her back and paces around the white room that is used to contain evildoers. It is surrounded by light magic that is designed to make them as uncomfortable as possible.
I narrow my eyes at her as she sits herself in a corner and brings her knees up to her chest. She places her cheek on her knees, and she looks so innocent in that pose, I take a step forward, only to draw back sharply as I realize what she is doing.
“You can’t control me,” I say to her. “Your powers mean nothing here.”
She turns her head slowly to look at me. “Tell me something I don’t know,” she says softly. “I seem to have moved from one prison to another over the last few months.”
The sadness in her voice makes me pause. She seems so sad, I need to comfort her, but if I get within touching distance of her, I will lose myself in her web and then we will both be taken prisoner. I have mere minutes before they realize I’m here with her.
“If you think for a second that I will allow you back to conceive the Devil’s spawn, you have another thing coming to you,” I inform her.
“What makes you think that?” Axelle asks, her blue eyes flashing with something I can’t quite place.
“I know that,” I reply. “I saw how you looked at him. He needs you and you want to be needed by him.”
“And what about what I need? What I want?” she answers hotly. “Have you even stopped to consider why I won’t go back to him?”
That catches me by surprise. No, I hadn’t even thought about that. Not really. I know she doesn’t want to produce the Devil’s spawn, but this is an awful lot of trouble to go to just to run from that.
“Didn’t think so,” she mutters at my silence and turns her head to look away from me again.
“I...” I start.
“Save it,” she says with a sigh. “I understand your plight. But I also know the rules. Your boss is all about free will. Choice and all that shit. You can’t keep me here.”
“You know that I don’t want to hurt you in any way, Axelle. I’m doing this for your own good, for the good of the world,” I say softly. “He can’t get to you here.”
“Oh, please,” she scoffs. “Don’t try and convince me that being locked away in here is for my own benefit.”
“All is not lost for you,” I say. “You can still be saved.”
“I was damned a long time ago, Dashel,” she says. “I was never destined for your side.”
“I don’t believe that,” I say earnestly. “Repentance is…”
“Not for me,” she says, interrupting me. “I don’t regret a single thing I have ever done, before or after I was made into a Demon.” The challenge in her voice, the sheer lack of remorse, only makes me more intrigued with her.
“I can see you don’t understand,” she says, nodding her head sagely. “How could you? You don’t know what it is like to not have to face consequences. Not really. This little vacation you’ve taken is nothing. You should try things my way, properly. It is…liberating.” Axelle stands up, exposing her gorgeous breasts to me.
“You think that this has been easy for me? You think this has been like a vacation? I have given up my whole existence to be with you.”
“Then be with me,” she snaps, her eyes full of anger. “Do what you must to save your soul while I fuck the living daylights out of you.”
“That is all you think about,” I snap back at her.
“It’s who I am! Or have you forgotten?”
“It’s not all you are, Axelle. I need to know you more. I—I’m prepared to fall for you, but I need to know that this is more for you than just the joining of our bodies.”
There. I’ve said what has been weighing on me. What I didn’t even want to admit to myself, but she is in a place now where she needs to know.
Her eyes soften and she comes to me. I take her in my arms, unable to help myself any longer.
“I love you, Angel,” she whispers. “You know that I wouldn’t, couldn’t, say that unless it was true.”
“I love you, Axelle. I know that deep inside me. Please do not go back to him. Not just for you and the world, but for me. I’m asking you not to go somewhere that I cannot be with you.”
“You can. You can be with me there if you fall!” she exclaims.
“He won’t allow it. I am an Angel, Axelle. I was Heaven’s Guardian for eons. I have killed countless of his Demons. He will take me and lock me up away from you for eternity.”
“I don’t know what to do,” she wails. “I can’t even think about going back to Earth right now where Evan died…”
She sobs in my arms and I comfort her as best I can, knowing that she truly cared about the Reaper.
“We won’t go back there,” I say to her eventually. “But we can’t stay here.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head and sobering up quickly. “Take me back there. I need to see him, and I need to see Luc. I have to sort this out with him once and for all.”
I hesitate.
“Please, Dashel, if you love me, you’ll do this for me.”
I can’t refuse her request after that because I do love her. I will be devastated if she goes back to the Devil to breed for him because I will lose her, but she is right about one thing. This needs resolving once and for all.
~ CHAPTER TWELVE ~
Axelle
I take a moment to compose myself by squeezing my eyes shut. I can’t bear to look at Evan lying there dead on the tile. It hurts my heart. I will kill Darius if I ever go back to Hell an
d he isn’t dead already from Dashel’s attack.
I squeeze Dashel’s hand and open my eyes to look at the spot where Evan was vanquished, but there is nothing there.
“He’s alive.”
I spin towards the smooth, beautiful voice with a gasp. “Luc!” I exclaim, with my hand on my chest, still very aware that I’m topless and barely covered in the pussy-area.
I take several steps back, along the edge of the pool, as Luc stands up from the patio chair that he has placed on the slate tile close to the pool’s edge. He takes my breath away in his black jeans, black shirt and black leather duster that looks so awesome on him, I want to weep.
“Wait, what?” I ask as his words catch up with me.
He gives Dashel a scathing look, his eyes lingering on our joined hands for a moment before they meet mine again. “Evan. He is alive,” Luc says. “I brought him back to life.”
“What?” I ask again, completely shocked. “You can do that?”
Luc smirks at me. “Yes, I can do that. He was mine after all, the other side can’t really complain about it.”
“You broke the rules?” I ask.
“For you,” Luc says stiffly. “I know that you…uhm…have feelings…”
I stare at him as he flounders. I’ve never seen him so ruffled before.
“I do,” I say carefully, elated that my Reaper is alive and well.
“Ah,” Luc says, clearing his throat and giving an offhand shrug. “Are you hurt?”
I search his eyes for signs of concern, but there is nothing there except his usual guarded look.
“No, I’m fine. Dashel isn’t working against me,” I answer with my own shrug. “He wants what’s best for me.”
“Oh, does he now?” Luc says darkly, his eyes flicking to my Angel and turning black. “I should burn you where you stand!”
“I do,” Dashel says, and believe me when I say the repeat of my words earlier hits me with full force and I giggle inappropriately much to Luc’s annoyance.
Luc looks back at me. “A word. In private.”