by Sam Cheever
I snorted and forced my eyes away from all things waving. “I assume you’re talking about the carpet.”
He grinned at me, the twinkle deepening. “Of course, lovely Astra, what else would I be referring to?”
“Yeah. What else my ass.” Casting around for somewhere to plant my eyes so that I didn’t have to look at human hair carpets or insistently waving packages, I realized that, aside from Nerul and myself, there were four other creatures in the room.
The lesser devils were dressed in the guard uniform of Nerul’s court, which consisted mainly of a knee-length black tunic of some kind of rough material. The guard’s tunics sported gold braid on the shoulders and were clasped around their thick, red bodies by a wide, black belt with a pentagram shaped buckle. Each of the guards had a knife sheath hanging from the belt of his tunic and, from the top of each sheath protruded a huge, intricately carved ivory handle that looked like it could be part of a sword from the size of it.
The guards were stationed two at each door. Four guards plus Nerul — only five of them and one of me. Not bad odds if I were at my best.
I forced my attention back to my “host”. “It must have taken you quite a while to assemble it.”
He shook his head and stepped closer to me. It took all of my will not to step back. “Not all that long really. I have many enemies.”
“Oh I don’t doubt that.” I narrowed my eyes at him as he moved closer still. I was becoming increasingly aware of how happy he was to see me and, for the first time, I began to fear for something other than my life. I decided it was time to wrest control of the situation away from the dark world’s version of Lord Godiva.
Putting my hands up in front of me, palms out, I scowled at him as fiercely as I could. “I’m not interested.”
He stopped moving toward me and cocked his slick, black head. “Not interested in what, Astra?”
The way he said my name was a caress. It smoothed down my body like a cool phantom fingertip, making me shiver. “Well, actually, in whatever you had in mind. I don’t appreciate being clubbed over the head and dragged here. I also don’t appreciate waking up to find myself lying on the hair of a lot of dead people and then being waved at by naked male parts. It’s a little...disconcerting to say the least.”
Nerul’s lips formed into a soft pout. “Yes, your abduction was most unfortunate. I have already punished my overzealous messengers for their unacceptable behavior. Please accept my sincerest apologies for their brutish treatment of you.”
He grinned at me like a child. I wasn’t sure how to handle the speech. It certainly wasn’t what I had expected. Finally, I just shrugged my acceptance of his apology. “Can you please put that away? I know you guys are real comfortable with nudity, but I’m not.”
Nerul laughed and, rather reluctantly I thought, allowed the robe to drop from his hips so that it almost covered everything. In any event, I wasn’t going to talk about it anymore, I’d made my point about his...uhmmm...point.
I had about ten seconds to feel relief before he was on me. I remember reading something in my books about how members of the Royal Court could move at superhuman speed, like the vampires of ancient fiction. Still, I wasn’t expecting to find him standing suddenly just mere centimeters from me. One second he was a few feet away and the next his breath was hot on my face and his cold, black eyes were drilling into mine.
Before I could even react I was slammed onto my back again and the gentle movement of the carpet beneath us swelled to gale-like roils. I wasn’t sure what terrified me more, the royally evil thing on top of me, or the disgustingly bewitched thing dancing beneath me. I wasn’t going to be given time to make a decision on that.
Nerul ground himself against me and laughed softly at the look of horror on my face. “Do not worry, lovely Astra, you will enjoy the experience of mating with me. You and I are more alike than you can guess.”
Before I could stop myself I said it. “You can just bite me, Nerul. We’re so not doing this.” I tensed immediately and felt my eyes grow wide. Shit. I really shouldn’t have said that.
Nerul’s laugh rumbled against my chest and sent shivers through my body. “Yes. I will definitely have to do that. But before the finale, let’s get to the foreplay. Foreplay is my favorite part.”
Casting about for something devastatingly scary to say that would get him to stop, all I could come up with was, “Well at least you understand the importance of pleasing your partner. I wouldn’t expect that from a leading member of the dark world.”
Nerul’s eyes darkened but he chuckled. “Oh Astra. I assure you, your pleasure is of utmost concern to me. Second only to my own of course.” Then he stuck out an absurdly long red tongue and ran it wetly across my cheek. Everywhere his tongue touched, my skin began to burn and pulse. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it was definitely disturbing. I could swear I heard a sizzling sound. He moaned, grinding his groin harder against me. Bruising me.
That was when I became horrifyingly aware that my nightgown had ridden up above my knees and there was nothing between my flesh and his flesh but my resourcefulness. And as my mind began to cloud and my body began to react traitorously to his attentions, I wasn’t at all sure there was anything at all between us.
I was working really hard to move past the magic he was using on my brain when his tongue found its way to my neck and worked its way down to the throbbing spot at the juncture of my neck and shoulder. I was feeling the panic that comes from being at the mercy of something delicious and evil at the same time, when Nerul’s body gave a surprised jerk and he glared at me. His eyes were black spears on my face, his teeth bared. The magic fog quickly evaporated from my head and I was on instant alert. Somehow the play had gone from fore to cat with mouse. Where I’d been, only seconds earlier, fearing for my chastity, I was now looking death in the face. Shit. I really needed to consider some different career options.
A career in de-radiating nuclear refuse was looking really good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
And your Little Dog Too!
Quickly she did find herself, on a feather bed in Hell,
In flame the Phoenix thrives and grows, but young ladies fare not well.
“You scheming bitch!” He roared. I sensed rather than saw the bodyguards moving closer and my heart stepped up its SOS in my chest. I concentrated on meeting his venomous glare with a calm front, trying not to let the fear into my eyes. Members of the dark world feed on fear. It excites them. The last thing I wanted at that moment was for Nerul’s excitement level to increase.
“You let him mark you!” I simply looked up at him, frowning slightly in feigned confusion. Just as suddenly as he’d deposited me on the disgusting hair carpet, Nerul leaped off me and began to pace the room angrily. “He’s beaten me again!” Stalking from side to side with Hell’s fire on his countenance, Nerul began mumbling to himself. All I could hear were the words, “He could still...there must be something...I won’t let this happen...”
I took the opportunity to scurry to my feet, pulling my very un-heroine-like fuzzy pink nightgown back down over my knees. As I gained my feet he flew at me. I backtracked quickly until I came up hard against the uncompromising bulk of one of the guards. Fear and a feeling of being trapped made my temper flair. “Back off, Nerul. Who the hell do you think you are? First you beat me over the head and drag me down here, then you nearly rape me, now you’re pissed off at me because one of your own kind mind-raped me before you could do it.”
Surprisingly this seemed to cool him down a bit and the fierce glare faded from his golden face to be replaced by a questioning look. “You were marked unwillingly?”
I tried to keep my face from turning a guilty red as I responded, after all, I wasn’t entirely sure that what Dialle had done was rape. “Of course. You don’t think I’d let one of you touch me by choice do you?”
He stared at me for a really long moment. His emotions tangled across his near-perfect features as he appeared to be wei
ghing what I’d said. Then he smiled at me in a way that made me think I might have made a fatal mistake.
Glancing toward his waiting guard, Nerul said, “Take her to the room that’s been prepared for her. And if she even looks like she’s going to try using those powers of hers, knock her over the head again.” So much for his “sincere” apology of only moments before. He put a hand under my chin and pulled my face toward his. I shivered and tried to pull away as he ran his tongue from my chin to the tip of my nose. Then he let go of my face and smiled at me. Somehow the tongue thing was less invasive than that smile. I longed to wipe my face but I was determined not to give him the satisfaction.
“You can’t keep me here.”
He cocked his head and laughed. “Can’t I, lovely Astra? We’ll see.” He signaled to the nearest guard. “Take her, I need time to think about what is to be done next. Dialle’s perfidy will cause us some difficulty I think, but our plans can still be salvaged if what she says is true.” He turned away and then, almost as an afterthought turned back. With an arrogant wave of his hand toward my very uninspiring attire he sneered, “And get rid of that damned thing. Have the Princess give you something more...suitable for her to wear.”
I wanted to argue with him but what could I say? My fuzzy, pink nightie didn’t exactly fit into my current surroundings. Maybe something in basic black silk and blood red would do nicely.
The guard jerked me around and pushed me through a door in the far wall, just behind Nerul’s room-sized marble desk. With some relief I left Nerul behind in that ghastly room. He was back to pacing and muttering to himself. At least he was too busy to torture me. Things were looking up.
I was “escorted” through the winding, dimly lighted caverns of Nerul’s court by three surly, red-faced devil guards, one on either side of me and one at my back (well at least Nerul wasn’t underestimating me anymore). The three musketeers led me to a room that was situated deep in the bowels of the earth. It had only one door and no windows. The walls were probably made of rock but they were hidden and softened behind long damask draperies of a rich burgundy color. The only furniture in the room was a huge four poster bed, which dominated the center of the space, and several comfortable looking cushions that were strewn about on the floor. After my experience in Nerul’s “office”, or whatever you’d call it, I quickly determined that the carpet was a normal, if excessively plush looking carpet of a rich golden color.
The bed was covered in white silk, and the same silk was draped over and hung down in soft folds from the bed’s canopy. The bed draperies pooled in aesthetically pleasing puddles around each stout mahogany leg of the bed. Smaller silk cushions of many shapes and sizes, in colors of deep burgundy and rich gold, were tossed with careless elegance upon the bed and around it to form a kind of sexual playground for the room’s unfortunate inhabitants.
Wonderful. Even Hell has a good decorator. So how come my own place was decorated in early lazy and traditional hate to shop?
As the guard left, locking the door behind him, I realized with a jolt of dismay that the room appeared to have been created more for carnal purposes than for violence. The realization created a cold, hard knot in the pit of my stomach. Unbidden, a picture formed in my mind of Nerul’s little “ceremony” in the blood soaked cave. I shuddered. With Nerul and his merry band of blood-inspired sexual predators around, I’d much rather deal with violence than things of the flesh.
Not that I was going to be given the choice.
Pacing the room, I struggled to come up with a way out of my predicament. I’d gotten myself out of equally tricky situations...I just had to think, think, think. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be given time to noodle a way out of my predicament just at that moment. I heard the bolt turn on the door and watched it slam back against the rock wall. Standing in the doorway was my worst nightmare.
No, it wasn’t a slavering demon or a slobbering gargoyle. It wasn’t even a naked devil carrying a human hair throw rug. It was the lovely and cruelly malicious Princess Rayanne, bearing wispy clothing, which I presumed was for me.
She stalked into the room and threw the little nothing of an outfit onto the bed. “We meet again, halfling Astra and it seems that, as usual, you are causing more problems than you are worth.”
I squared my stance and looked her in the eye in what I hoped was my scariest, bad-ass bitch look. She didn’t even have to look at her hand of cards, she called me and raised me five thousand goose bumps with her scariest, you’re a pipsqueak in my world look. She won. She was right. However, it didn’t keep me from trying to look like I could kick her ass.
“I’m surprised to see you here Princess Cold Freeze.” Which was, of course, an understatement of gargantuan proportions. What the hell was she doing in the bowels of Nerul’s court? Why wasn’t she at home playing footsy with my darling devil Dialle? What was this, a cosmic case of two-timing? Was she making the ultimate sacrifice and playing spy for my gorgeous devil? Or was she simply cuckolding my cutie? Twanging two instruments? Working both sides of a one-way street? Huh? Enough? Okay.
She laughed and narrowed her eyes at me. My knees buckled and I hit the floor hard. My head bounced off the soft carpet and I bit my tongue, experiencing the copper taste of my own precious blood. Shit.
Rayanne glided across the room to stand over me, like an aggressive dog trying to prove its dominance. She smiled in a not so nice way and kicked me with a dainty foot that was encased in a cream-colored ballet slipper. “You are nothing. You are a puny, powerless nuisance. I rue the day I saw your plain, unexceptional face. If I had my way you’d be dead.”
Pulling myself to my feet, I leaned on the bed for support. I looked her in the eye again. If I couldn’t kick her ass, at least I could piss her off with my staying power. “But apparently you aren’t going to get your way are you, Evil Barbie? You aren’t in control here any more than I am.”
Whomp. I was on the floor again, with the added fun of a, blistering jolt of electricity for good measure. As the power slashed its way through my body, I tried to remain calm. It wasn’t easy with every muscle in my body jerking in constant, gut-wrenching spasms.
Just when I thought I would die for sure, she stopped. The power left my body and slowly my muscles started to relax. I just lay there, trying not to breathe too deeply for fear it would hurt. I hated to show weakness, but at the moment I didn’t have much choice. She’d really taken something out of me with that one.
Stepping away from me with a satisfied chuckle, Rayanne pointed to the wispy little nothing on the bed and gave my poor, battered body another kick. “Put that on. You will be entertaining...or should I say, the entertainment...later.” With that ominous news she glided out of the room, still laughing.
I continued to lie there for a few more minutes, savoring the temporary peace. Eventually I’d have to get up and fight my way out of there, but somehow it seemed like too much to ask right at the moment. I risked a couple of deep breaths and lay there trying to think.
So far I hadn’t tried to use any powers. Somehow I’d just been too busy to attempt it. But I figured it was time to try. Lying very still, I closed my eyes and tried to pull the forces within me into focus. With a monumental effort of will I felt a tiny spark and then...nothing. I tried again with much the same result. Something was blocking my powers.
I pushed myself to my feet and went to the door. Even before I touched it I knew it had been enchanted with some kind of restraining spell. I could almost feel the vibrations it was giving off. As my hand touched its rough wooden surface it felt like one thousand volts of electricity hitting me right in the gut. Sparks flew, scorching my palm and I was flung several feet from the door. I hit the floor so hard I bounced.
The door started to open again and, despite my recent attempts to escape through that very door, I found myself scooting backward toward the bed.
Nothing good was gonna come through that damn door.
To flavor my trepidation, the evil Bar
bie’s last words were still reverberating through my head. Whatever was about to come at me, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to “entertain” it, or anything else in that place.
Which was why the figure that stepped into the room so shocked me. I sat on the floor, my fluffy, pink nightgown bunched around my butt and my mouth hanging open as if I hadn’t a firm thought in my head. My eyes stretched with surprise and something that felt suspiciously like awe.
He was tall and beautiful and somehow...ethereal. He stood there, looking down at me with the palest of blue eyes, which somehow managed to tell me a story of the pain he’d endured, while at the same time offering reassurance that was like a soothing balm to my tattered nerves.
He stood just inside the door, his long, pale hands crossed in front of him and his shoulders slightly sloped, as if he were trying to appear less menacing. He favored me with a sad, beautiful smile. “Princess Astra. We meet at last. I fear it is all but too late now to save either of us. But despite that...” He offered the sad smile again. “—I am happy to make your acquaintance.”
I gulped and tried to speak but my throat closed around the words like a vise. Clearing my throat I swallowed hard, trying to force spit past the clench in my vocal chords. Finally I managed to croak out his name...though it seemed an inadequate response under the circumstances. “Prince Nille...”
Nerul sauntered into the room behind Nille. I fought the urge to shiver. It occurred to me that Nerul brought cold, crypt-like air with him wherever he went, like a cologne.
Eau de death.
I scrambled to my feet and Prince Nille moved between his father and me. To my extreme surprise the beautiful prince appeared to be trying to shield me from Nerul. Then the three of us shared a serious soap opera moment.
You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the holographic special about ancient human daytime television. You know, those shows where the television actors all stopped just before the commercial break and looked around the room at each other meaningfully...nobody saying anything with their lips but everyone contorting their expressions comically to speak volumes about what they were thinking and feeling. Once grimace is worth a thousand words...that kind of thing.