by Eden Winters
The BFD suddenly seemed to remember herself, or at least to recognize an audience had just witnessed her giving ear to a human. She still hadn’t gotten over the snickering about her sleeping with a human herself—even if he was a really evil accountant.
“Are you here to challenge for my son?” Her voice grew eerily cold for someone who basically lived in open flame.
All the mincing, all the prancing, all the playfulness suddenly disappeared. Dillon held himself straighter, though he only came up to the demon queen’s chest. “Yes, I am.”
Fire shot from the BFD’s fingers, directly at Dillon.
“No!” Vik screamed. He dove to intercept the blast.
From every corner of the cavern shadows gathered, whipping into a spectral whirlwind that batted the flame away, only to retreat into… Dillon’s raised fist? What the Home?
The BFD and Dillon locked eyes, some communication Vik couldn’t hear ricocheting between them. Moments passed, their stares remained fused. The fifty or so assorted witnesses fidgeted and murmured.
The whispers increased as dark shapes swept into the chamber, dimming the glowing stalagmites.
The BFD of the Sixth Level broke the gaze first, to rivet her scowl on an equally imposing woman dressed head to toe in black. The newcomer’s garments reminded Vik of his first encounter with Dillon.
“What are you doing here, Chandra?” his mother roared.
What little of the woman’s face peeked from her apparel was luminous blue. Black lips pulled away from gleaming teeth, complete with diminutive fangs. Hmmm… She looked vaguely familiar. “That’s easy, Anna. My son summoned me.”
Anna? No one called the BFD Anna. Except Grandma. Oh wait. Son?
Vik’s mother stepped away from Dillon as if he burned, and not in a good way. “Your son? This puny human is your son? You’ve certainly gone slumming since we last met.”
Chandra snorted. “Don’t you know glamour when you see it?”
Glamour? Vik squinted hard, but only saw Dillon. And if he stared too hard, he saw Dillon as he’d been last night. Mostly, naked and breathing hard. What the fuck was she talking about? And who was she?
The newcomer addressed Dillon. “For years we’ve been at war, however inactively, and yet you managed to breach their defenses. I, Chandra, Mistress of Level Five, Terror of…”
Crap! Mistress of Level Five? That meant…But how?
“Not so fast.” Dillon dropped his voice so low Vik strained to hear. “Before you go claiming level six for our territory, I’d like to propose a compromise.”
The queen of level six sputtered, “You…you won. You found a way in even if it was by my own offspring’s gullibility.” She grabbed Vik’s arm and pulled him to the side. “I don’t blame you, son. You are your father’s child and bound to fuck up by genetics.”
“What are you talking about? Dad’s a genius at evil! He caused the housing collapse.”
His mother placed a hand on Vik’s cheek. “The housing crisis of 2008? He was trying to goose building sales. His scheme backfired.”
“What? How about what he’s doing right now to the US economy?” It couldn’t be true. Dad had to be a pure demon-at-heart. Head and horns above the rest.
His mother’s lips twisted into something resembling a wordless apology. “That happened when he tried to solve the deficit. I’m sorry, son, I never wanted you to find out, but your father… Well, your father has good intentions! I know, we can’t all be perfect. His plans always go horribly wrong, you see. Holland should have been the world power of the seventeenth century, but…”
“Good intentions?” No! It couldn’t be! Not Dad! He couldn’t be a bumbler.
“And I have another confession to make. Please don’t think less of me, but I… I love him anyway.” Eyes that could fire flames from ten feet stared down at the floor. “And I raised you as best I could to overcome the goodness in your genes.” She glanced up, taking in first Vik, and then Dillon. The iciness returned to her tone. “Even if you can’t be evil, looks like you managed to attract plenty. Your goodness and misplaced trust has cost us our realm. I was right! Diomede was bad for you!”
“You knew about me and Diomede?” Vik stared at his mother with wide eyes. He cast a nervous gaze at Dillon standing a few yards away. Now who was the one with the ex? If Chandra was Dillon’s mother, then Dillon and Diomede must be brothers. But Dillon had said he was human. Hadn’t he?
“Knew? Of course I knew! It’s hard to ignore two rampaging demons! Do you have any idea how many earthquakes you caused? Volcanic eruptions? Do you? Word spread that if the two of you united, you’d conquer all the realms. Why do you think I forced you apart?” She placed both hands on Vik’s cheeks. “I know you, the decency within, and was afraid that he’d use you and discard you once he’d gotten what he wanted.”
All those years he’d pined over his former lover. Had Vik only been a plaything? A means to an end? His horns wilted a bit. Damn. “He used me?”
“Don’t be so quick to judge.” Chandra marched up to stand nose to nose with her rival. “You’re the one who never gave my son a chance, breaking his and your own son’s hearts. Then you placed runes in the passageways, declaring whoever found a way past the safeguards laid claim to both levels. As if any one of your ilk stood a chance against the stealth of the shadow warriors.”
“Shadow warriors?” Vik scratched the spot between his horns where it itched when he thought too hard. Why did that sound familiar?
Dillon finally spoke, directly to Vik. “Ninja is a human term for a shadow warrior. Although I wore a costume, I didn’t lie about what I am. It started out as a hookup. I’d no intention of helping you as Ralph asked me to. After all, our tribes are at war. All these years I believed what someone”—he shot a look of pure loathing at Vik’s mother—“told me. That you’d come to your senses and didn’t want to see me anymore.”
“Dillon, what are you talking about? I didn’t even know you until last night!”
“You know me, all right.”
Vik really would have liked Dillon’s sheepish grin, if he weren’t questioning whether or not the man was laughing with him or at him.
“You talk in your sleep, did you know that?” A flush of color crept up Dillon’s cheeks.
No, Vik didn’t. One of many things he apparently didn’t know. “What did I say?”
“A name.”
Oh Home. He’d called someone else’s name after a night of sex with Dillon? It’s a wonder Dillon hadn’t murdered him in his sleep. “What name?” Vik’s heart hammered a frantic beat. Please, no. Let him not have said…
“Mine.”
“Dillon?” Whew. Thank badness!
“In a way. You called out, ‘Diomede.’ No matter how much time has passed, I never forgot you. Hearing my name fall from your lips cemented my resolve. I’d have you, if I had to storm the sixth level single-handed.”
“Diomede?” Dillon looked nothing like Vik’s first love—his only love.
“No!” the BFD screeched. “My realm is one thing, my son is another. I vowed that he’d have only the finest mate. One equal to his station. And a female, to give him children.”
“That old prejudice?” Chandra buffed her talons against her velvet lapel. “That’s how this war started to begin with, remember? Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?”
“Tazlina!” The BFD lifted her chin, eyes beginning to smolder.
“Yes, Your Wickedness?” The warrior appeared in a puff of smoke, girded with daggers. A fearsome sword glittered in her hand.
“Kick this idiot’s ass to Home and back.” A leering smile lifted the edges of the queen’s red lips.
Tazlina faked a left, then slashed at Dillon. Dillon vanished into shadow to reappear behind Tazlina.
The warrior whirled, her razor-sharp blade slicing… shadows. “Yoo-hoo! Over here!” Dillon lounged on the queen’s throne.
Wow! Ninja skills again! Or rather, shadow warrior. Either way, Dil
lon had killer moves.
Tazlina whirled, raising her weapon above her head, and charged. What? They had a deal. She wasn’t supposed to attack for real. Steel clanged against the stone of the vacant throne.
“Lose something?” Shadows receded to show a grinning human standing two feet away.
Damnation. Dillon hadn’t needed to negotiate with Tazlina at all. He merely sought to win an ally. No matter how badly she might want to, she couldn’t lay a hand on the shadow warrior. She hung her head. Even beaten she appeared magnificent.
The lieutenant who’d starred in a few of Vik’s dreams regarded her from the corner of his eye. Ah, so that explained why Vik hadn’t ever gotten anywhere with the hunky guard. Oh well, Tazlina needed a consolation prize—that is, if she found the time to work him in with her up and coming movie career.
“Kiana!” the mother who wouldn’t accept defeat screeched. “My son’s mate will be a gorgeous demoness, not some, puny, pale wish-it-was-a-demon. And from another level, no less.”
“Yes, Your Highness?” Kiana materialized and bowed low before her ruler. Dillon strode with confident steps to stand beside her. He dropped his glamour. Where a pale human had stood, a being of unparalleled beauty now showed, skin blue-black and clothed in shadow. A pair of curved horns rose above his ebony mane, tipped with silver and crystal. His mesmerizing yellow gaze fell on Vik.
Brimstone lodged in Vik’s throat. It couldn’t be! Not after all this time. “Diomede,” he whispered. The heart he wasn’t supposed to have beat double-time.
Prince Diomede had grown up well. Uncurled, his horns would reach over three feet. Then something in Vik’s heart that had been missing for years returned.
“See, Anna? I told you keeping them apart would solve nothing. They’re destined to be together. I know you feel the sizzle in the air when they look at each other. Now, surrender your realm or listen to my son’s compromise.” Chandra dropped the shadows to reveal a face very similar to her son’s, framed by silver-tipped horns.
All eyes were on Dillon, um, Prince Diomede. “Instead of one realm enslaved to another, why don’t we combine our powers? Prince Noorvik is heir to this level, as I’m heir to the next. Together, we’ll be unstoppable.” Diomede vanished in shadow, to reappear at Vik’s side. He took Vik’s hand and gazed deeply into his eyes. “That is, if Prince Noorvik agrees.”
How many times had Vik lost sleep, heart aching to hold his prince? Yet, all the while his former lover hadn’t missed him at all, apparently, filling his bed with anyone who wandered too close. “What about all those other demons? You seem to like playing the field.” Yes, Vik definitely did have a heart, birth defect or no, because in that moment it threatened to rip in two.
Instantly a curtain of shadows surrounded Vik and Diomede, effectively cutting them off from all others. Diomede cupped Vik’s face in his hands. “I don’t know what your mother told you, but when the levels were sealed, I received a message saying you weren’t going to see me anymore. I still craved your touch and searched for it everywhere, cursing you all the while. I slept around hoping to forget you, to heal the hurt of betrayal. Now that I know the truth, that it was your mother, not you who ended things, I’ll never need anyone else. Promise.”
Diomede sank to one knee. “If this isn’t what you want, I’ll leave today and not press my claim on your territory. But Vik, I gotta tell you, losing you again might kill me.” He gave a toothy grin, exposing a bit of fang. “Don’t tell anyone, but your mother isn’t the only one to love a human. Yes, I have a mortal father, and a heart, just like you.” He added in a conspiratorial whisper, “And so does your mother. That’s what she’s really afraid of, that someone down here will learn how human their ruling family is—that’s why she’d bind you to another of your own realm. It’s politics, plain and simple. She doesn’t want to rock an already shaky boat by joining you to a male.”
A chuckle rumbled up from Diomede’s chest. “If she got out in the world more she’d understand how outmoded her thinking is. Why, levels three and eight both have same-sex rulers. They’re pretty cool too. You see, no one is at war anymore. We’re too busy having fun to care what happens on other levels.”
All this time, all these years, Vik had agonized needlessly. One day he’d sit down and have a very long talk with his mother. Today, he’d pick his battles. “You’ll truly have the mother-in-law from Hell, you know.”
Diomede inclined his head and flashed a bit more fang. “I think it’ll be worth it.”
Really? “But, if we take mates, we’ll be considered grownups, and have to…”—Vik swallowed hard, dislodging the wedged-in brimstone from earlier—“….take over our mothers’ roles. I don’t want to torment anyone.”
“Who told you we have to torment people?”
Yeah, where had Vik actually heard such? “Everybody knows demons are evil and hurt people.”
Diomede tssked. “That idea is as outdated as your mother’s wardrobe.” The shadow curtain dropped.
“Hey!” shouted the BFD of What-not-to-wear.
“Then what are we gonna do?” The less the better, in Vik’s way of thinking.
“We’re both heirs to the throne. We can do anything we want.” Diomede stood, a stack of parchment appearing in his hand.
Vik peered over his shoulder at a rather lengthy list. “Um… that looks sort of, um, good?”
“Nah, still evil, but twice the fun, half the upkeep.”
“Scare otherwise honest people back on the straight and narrow when they go astray? Works for me.”
“I still haven’t given my approval.” The BFD raised herself to full height, several inches above Diomede, even in his demon form. The illusion was wasted on Vik, who’d often seen the stacked hoof covers she wore under her gown.
Diomede somehow summoned enough extra height to gaze down on her. “I will fight for him. I’ll pass any test. And not because someone commanded me to, but because he’s mine and I’m willing to prove it.”
The golden tips of Vik’s mother’s horns dipped forward. Time for Vik to man up, or rather, demon up. “Mother.” He took her hands in his. “You always told me to grow up. Now’s the time. You also allowed me one day to find a mate of my own. I’ve found him. I choose Diomede. You can command me to mate with another, but my heart will always be his.”
“You’re as stubborn as your father.” Her words lacked heat and one side of her mouth gave a little twitch. “If you won’t be dissuaded I suppose I’ll have to learn to accept your decision, won’t I? That or incinerate you both where you stand.”
Vik froze. His mother cackled her most sinister laugh. “Just kidding. Now you kids run along. My old friend and I have some details to work out.”
Diomede grabbed Vik’s hand. “C’mon. Let’s get back to your place. There’s a flogger and St. Andrew’s Cross with your name on ‘em.”
They’d barely cleared the throne room exit when Diomede grabbed Vik, slung him against the wall, and dove.
“Oof!” Vik sucked in a breath to replace the one just knocked out of him. “What about my apartment.”
“I can’t wait that long,” Diomede mumbled against Vik’s lips.
Sounded good to Vik… But…
“Our mothers are close enough to hear us.” And didn’t that wilt tails and other body parts?
“Good point.” Diomede yanked Vik back the way they’d come. Back when Big Blue had been a scrawny little human, he hadn’t been capable of pulling Vik at such speeds.
Had the passageway always been this long? Vik paused to catch his breath before flinging open the door to his apartment. Damnation! Just a cave.
“Allow me,” Diomede said. With a snap of his fingers he returned the place to its former S & M dungeon ambiance.
Torchlight flickered from wall sconces. Reminded Vik of sneaking off years ago to unused caverns near level five.
And finding his lover there.
Diomede. Here. Now. He’d had a damned good idea out in the co
rridor. And Vik had always loved the way he thought.
“Vik, don’t you think…Ack!!”
Vik slammed his demon again the closest wall and sealed his mouth over Diomede’s, catching a bit of fang. Oh well, no use having fangs if he didn’t use them on occasion. He dragged their points over the base of Diomede’s throat.
Diomede moaned, an eerie, sinister, haunting sound to send shivers down the spine and the faint of heart screaming.
In other words, a single wordless cry to melt certain parts of Vik, while hardening others. He kissed his mate, snaking his tail up the leg of Diomede’s pants. So good not to have to downplay his abilities.
Oh! Tails! Vik grasped Diomede’s pants and yank, splitting the material and letting a long, blue tail out to play.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
He grasped the appendage in one hand, and slowly, slowly, brought the sensitive blue flesh to his mouth, Diomede’s eyes growing bigger by the moment.
“You’re not going to…I mean…”
Vik grinned and ran his tongue over the pointed tip of his lover’s tail.
“Oh!” Diomede grabbed the wall, knees trembling. “No one licks demon tail like you do!”
Vik curled his tongue around the blue flesh he’d yearned for. The scent, the taste. Hellfire and Brimstone #5, combined with Diomede’s own natural scent had haunted his dreams for so long.
Every night he’d dreamed.…
“Hold that thought on the whips and chains idea.” Vik winked. “There’s someplace I want to go.”
Wrapping his arms around his mate, he closed his eyes and clearly pictured a place he hadn’t been in years, but yet still burned clear in his mind. The scent of sulfur hung heavy in the air. He opened his eyes and stared into Diomede’s.
Diomede gave a smile. “The brimstone pile! Where we first…”
“Yup!” Like the first time, they tugged and ripped at each other’s clothes, flickering firelight painting their skin in glowing hues and shadow. Oops! There went a carelessly tossed shirt!