bedeviled & beyond 01 - bedeviled & beguiled

by Sam Cheever

  The fabric covering the bed was still warm. And smelled of him. I thought I would die from the pain. My traitorous mind replayed our years together in fast forward, showing me only the good times in that horrible way the mind does when it suffers an enormous loss. I thought of my angel and the loss of her friend, Prevara and allowed my soul to take on her burden as well. Somehow everything seemed to be my fault. Somehow I should have been able to stop their deaths. Somehow. But I hadn’t. Prevara and Emo had both died trying to save me. It was an awful burden to lay on myself, but I did it anyway. I couldn’t help myself any more than I’d been able to help them.

  My self-pity and despair were all too soon interrupted.

  A warm, heavy weight landed on my shoulder. I turned my bleary gaze to find a strong, golden hand lying there. Swiping angrily at the wetness on my face, I looked up, expecting to see Dialle standing over me. Instead, the heavens opened up and a celestial light filled my soul. Emo stood there, smiling down at me through his extremely handsome, royal face.

  “Hey boss.”

  Choking back a less than manly scream of joy, I surged to my feet and launched myself at him. My smile and his met across a space of just a few inches and, before I knew what had happened, Emo’s beautiful lips were on mine, his arms were around me and my world was spinning on a golden web of surprise, confusion, and terrified delight.

  I pushed away quickly and covered my confusion with questions. “What happened while I was gone? How did you heal so fast? I thought you were dead, Dialle said...” My words trailed off as Emo’s smile faltered and fell away.

  As he twisted away from me I fought the urge to pull him back. He turned toward the door and frowned. I was sure he was going to say something that would rock my world, but then the door swung open, slamming (of course) back against the rock wall and Dialle strode in, followed by Gerch.

  Dialle stopped in front of Emo and their eyes met, tangled and pushed brittle feelings toward one another like knives. Finally, after a few too many beats, Emo’s gaze dropped and so did he, lowering himself to one knee and bowing his head. “My Prince.”

  Dialle glanced at me and grinned. I wanted to smack him. I settled for a little mental whack. Don’t be an asshole.

  Why Astra? I’m a Devil Prince, asshole is one of my kinder traits. Out loud he said. “Stand, Emo. Welcome to the court of Dialle the First.”

  Emo’s face when he rose, unfamiliar as it still was to me, was unreadable. Since I was accustomed to being able to read my friend and partner like a book, it made me distinctly uncomfortable to look at his blank expression and wonder at the thoughts that moved around behind it.

  His black eyes stared flatly into Dialle’s and his muscles were taut, his jaw flexed. These were the only signs I had that he was unhappy.

  By contrast, Dialle’s expression was almost jovial. He seemed to be enjoying Emo’s discomfort.

  I decided it was time to intervene. “Can either of you explain to me why Emo is standing here, very much alive and looking...good (really good...great actually), when we left him looking like he already had two feet and one knee in the grave?”

  Dialle grinned mischievously at me. “It appears that Nerul’s soul must no longer be walking among us. Nille must have disposed of his father.” He refastened his blue gaze on my partner’s velvet black one. “And it also appears that he has decided he has something to live for.”

  Emo’s gaze hadn’t moved from Dialle’s face, but it had hardened. I began to worry that my friend would get himself into trouble and decided that further distraction was needed.

  Forcing a smile onto my face I took the couple of steps between us and, standing up on my toes, gave Emo’s cheek a sisterly peck. His gaze finally left Dialle. He smiled down at me and took one of my hands in his own, raising it to his lips and kissing it very tenderly. His dark eyes slid back to Dialle as his lips burned into the back of my hand and a spark danced in each of the black centers.

  Dialle’s smug smile slid away and the blue of his gaze slipped behind midnight black. As I watched, an orange ring throbbed at the edges of his pupils, clearly illustrating his anger.

  “Okay that’s it.” I pulled my hand away from Emo’s firm but gentle grasp and turned on my heel. “I’m not going to stand here and call out scores for your pissing contest. I’m outa here.”

  Dialle grabbed my arm. “Do not go, Astra. We will behave ourselves. For now. Is that not right, Emo?”

  It was Emo’s turn to grin mischievously. “For now. Yes.”

  I scowled at both of them, shaking my head. I was trying really hard to ignore the way my hand felt warm and tingly where Emo’s full, sculpted lips had touched it. “Well...okay. Partner, I’m glad to see that you’re alive and looking...well... Anyway...I’m glad.” I cleared my throat, embarrassed at the way my voice had cracked as my gaze scoured his newly scrumptious self. “I’m going home. It’s been a long day and I want to have a shower and sleep for a decade.”

  Emo’s eyes flashed with something that made me all tingly. “I’ll take you.”

  Dialle, whose hand I’d shaken off once already, moved closer. “Astra, we must speak before you go.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Must we?”

  Dialle dropped his head to kiss me before I could bolt away. Despite my discomfort at kissing Dialle in front of Emo, my heart took up the beat that was playing itself out in my lower regions. Heat, sharp and molten ran through my body at the touch of his lips and I closed my eyes and leaned into him before I realized what I was doing. When I opened my eyes a moment later we were standing in Dialle’s chambers and Emo wasn’t.

  I also became aware that Dialle had climbed up my shirt and was making himself very familiar with the geography of a part of my body that is not considered a public access area by the Astra Q. Phelps dating committee of one (that’s me). I cursed and pushed his hands away just as the door crashed back against the wall and spat Gerch at us.

  “My Prince. I’m sorry to...interrupt...” I glared at him and saw just the tiniest tipping up of one side of his wide, craggy lips. “But the king has requested your presence in his rooms.”

  I grinned. Saved again. Dialle cursed. “Tell him to go to Heaven.”

  Gerch’s lips twitched but, soldier-like, he managed to hold the smile in check. “My Prince, do you think that’s wise?”

  Dialle’s answering glare very nearly succeeded in banishing his Captain’s smile into the shadows, never to be seen again. Gerch lowered his head and body in the tiniest bow. “As you wish.” But he didn’t leave the room.

  Dialle cursed again and paced away from me. I found his response to his father’s summons singularly interesting. Despite my extreme weariness I couldn’t help the spark of interest that gave me new energy. It might be fun to meet Dialle the First if he could make my Dialle so deliciously nervous and pissed off.

  After a minute Dialle’s gaze shot toward the waiting Gerch and he sighed. “Oh hell! All right, Gerch. Wait outside the door for a minute while Astra and I finish our...business.”

  Yikes! That so wasn’t what I had in mind. My eyes went round and my mouth opened to argue but I didn’t get the chance. Dialle was on me like bristle hairs on an elephant before I could say, diddley squat.

  My traitorous body melted against him almost as soon as his lips met mine. My world suddenly became a small bubble of musky heat and shared air that caused my limbs to tighten with need even as they turned to warm, flexible rubber.

  Dialle’s eyes, blue again, burned into me as he pulled those incredibly soft lips from mine and trailed his hot, red tongue across my lips. I gasped. I could have sworn the touch sizzled against my tender, swollen lips. “I’m damned.” I said on a need-charged sigh.

  Dialle chuckled, his tongue having worked its way down my chin into that tender spot on my neck where my daemon hickey throbbed. When his teeth replaced his tongue I was beyond caring. He could have ripped my throat out right there and then and I wouldn’t have even noticed. My body
was a flame that flickered to his gentle breeze, my mind was a melted pool of pleasure, totally devoid of will or coherent thought.

  But he didn’t bite me. At least not hard enough to draw blood. He only teased my tender flesh until I thought I would scream. And then released me.

  “Unfortunately we’ll have to finish this later, my Love. The great Dialle awaits.”

  “Huh...Wha?” Taking a deep, cooling breath I stuck my nose in the air and glared at him. “It’s a good thing you stopped. I was getting ready to kick your ass.”

  Dialle chuckled and touched the tip of my nose with his lips. “Of course you were, lovely halfling.” He grabbed my arm and started to steer me toward the door but, despite my earlier curiosity about King Dialle the First, I suddenly found myself reluctant to be taken to him. “Wait just a minute, Dialle.” I jerked my arm out of his grasp.

  He turned an amused expression with an arched, black eyebrow toward me but didn’t say anything.

  “I want the whole story about Nille and Nerul. You haven’t told me anything.”

  He cocked his head and grinned. “I thought you were the great detective, little halfling, haven’t you figured it out?”

  I knew he was trying to draw me into an argument. I knew it. But dammit I couldn’t stop myself from responding. “I never said I was some frunkin’ great detective. That’s not my job. I vanquish demons and gargoyles and cocky damn devils.” I really didn’t like the way my voice was squeakin’ and squawkin’. “Now stop baiting me and tell me about Nille.”

  I pushed away from him and moved to sit on the beautiful, mohair divan that sat beneath the wall of windows which looked out over the city. I crossed my arms and legs and sat back. My message...I wasn’t going anywhere until he filled me in.

  Before I could blink, a whisper of wind and a lowering of the cushions next to me announced his presence on the divan. I turned my head and found his deep blue gaze just inches from mine. His gaze pulled at me, the irises of his eyes shifting and swirling like a holographic representation of atmospheric changes over the Earth.

  I used my power to push him to the other end of the divan.

  He sighed and sat back, crossing his arms and his legs. “Ok, my lovely victim, what exactly do you want to know?”

  “Tell me how Nille was taken captive and who did it. Was it Nerul?”

  Dialle shook his head, dislodging a few silky strands of hair and causing them to curl, just a tiny bit, around his square jaw. I had to force myself to swallow.

  “Rayanne and I brought him here, on my father’s orders. We kept him in our deepest, sturdiest chambers with armed guards and constant surveillance. Despite all that, however, he disappeared one day.”

  “How?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know the details, but I know Rayanne was involved. She and Nerul intended to drain Nille of his power and had a plan to use ancient Black Magic to do it.”

  I nodded, “That’s where I came in.”

  “Yes. They didn’t realize Nille would turn the tables on them and increase his own power as a result of their magic tricks.” Dialle’s voice was a deep, silken caress that tightened my stomach. His beautiful lips turned up, displaying those startlingly white teeth. As my gaze was drawn to that scrumptious mouth, his tongue snuck out and waggled at me, bringing liquid fire into my lower regions and causing my heart to speed up. I laughed to cover up my response. “Stop it. You’re such a child.”

  The grin widened but the tongue retreated. “They took young Prince Nille to the tower room and kept him there by magic.”

  “What about Deaver?”

  Dialle shook his head and frowned. “He made a deal with the devil and lost his soul. Shit happens.”

  I laughed. “You’ve been hanging around me too much.”

  “Ah no, lovely Astra, not nearly enough.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Go on.”

  “They kept Nille at the church, torturing him just for the fun of it. I had searched the tower of course, but they kept moving him to avoid my finding him. I think they moved him back and forth from the Shadows.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. I wanted to ask him a question but knew it would make me sound impossibly naïve. Finally though, I had to ask, “Why did Nerul kidnap and abuse his own son?”

  “Nerul hated Nille because he was so powerful. He wanted that power for himself but Nille had always stood apart from his father. He appeared to be above influence. I think Nerul really believed that his independent son was the long awaited one.”

  “He wasn’t?”

  Dialle stood up and went to stand in front of the wall of windows. I couldn’t see his face but I read in the set of his shoulders and the rigidity of his body that he was uncomfortable about something. “To tell you the truth, Astra, I’m not sure.” He turned toward me then and I saw something flicker across his midnight black gaze that made me uncomfortable.

  “How can that be?”

  He turned away again. “The great texts actually prophesied two powerful devils. One was expected to be the great unifier, the other, sort of an anti-prophet whose task would be to stop what had been prophesied from happening.”

  “If that’s true how is it possible that we vanquished Nille so easily?”

  He turned to me then, his eyes pulsing with the uncertainty and despair that I’d only glimpsed earlier, “Did we?”

  “Oh shit!”

  He nodded. “Yes, Astra. Oh shit.” He thought about that for a while and then turned back to me. “Anyway. When Nille disappeared I encouraged my father to enlist your help. I had, of course, heard of you...”

  “Of course.” We grinned at each other.

  “As you might expect, Rayanne was against it. But once my father made up his mind Rayanne could not stop me from bringing you here. I think you know the rest of it.”

  My raised eyebrows were all the answer I believed he needed.

  Dialle held my gaze for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his gorgeous face and then was suddenly standing over me. He offered me his hand. “Shall we go now, my Princess?”

  I stood up and scowled at him. “Don’t call me that.”

  “Why not, my Princess?”

  “Because I said.”

  We moved toward the door, me looking grumpy and him looking amused.

  “But I care not what you say, little Princess. I am your Prince.”

  “Kiss my ass.”

  He pulled open the door and nodded to Gerch, who proceeded to lead the way toward Dialle the First and the next episode in the hell that is my life.

  “It would be my pleasure to kiss your ass, my Princess.”

  Gerch’s shoulders tensed when I growled low in my throat but, to his credit, he didn’t turn around.

  “I swear, Dialle, you’re lucky I’m outnumbered.”

  Dialle grinned at me, the tip of his hot, red tongue waggling suggestively. “I think I could best you, my Princess.”

  “Oh, you’ll get a chance to try.”

  If my feet hit the floor a little harder than was exactly necessary I think you’ll understand. Such is the frustration and complexity of my life. Sigh. Oh well. At least I still had my health. Well...until after my audience with the King of the Devils. Where I was pretty sure I’d piss somebody off and have to be saved again.

  Stay tuned. I promise it will be interesting.

  The End

  I hope you enjoyed Bedeviled & Beguiled. But wait, you’re not done! Here’s a taste of Book 2 in the Bedeviled & Beyond series, Bedeviled & Bedazzled!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Blood Will Tell

  Alas our halfling finds herself, in the fiery clutch of Hell,

  Her sexy hero’s cursed bonds, do cause her plight to swell.

  The hallway we traveled was long and well lit. Both sides were lined with heavy wooden doors and above each one was a wall sconce that emitted a soft, yellow light. The carpet beneath our feet was impossibly white and thick enough to sleep on. The air gave off a heated, slightly musky sme
ll that told me the huge stone building was filled with otherworldly types.

  I struggled to keep up with the two devils, my much shorter legs pumping furiously. Occasionally Dialle would reach back and tug on my hand to pull me forward. In full disclosure, I’d have to admit that some of my slowness probably wasn’t due to my height. Whenever I got behind I ogled my devil’s taut, yummy buttocks. Once he caught me looking and laughed. Heat flared in my cheeks but—knowing that the best defense was a good offense—I glared back at him defiantly, daring him to comment.

  Gerch turned a corner and I found myself in another endless hallway that looked much the same as the first one. That hallway turned, eventually, into a third hallway that finally ended beyond a gilded archway filled with armed guards and a harem of beautiful women, both devil and fallen angel. The guards stood at rigid attention on either side of the archway and both sides of the huge, gold-plated doors in the center. The women lounged on chaises and were flung across long, backless divans. Their sheer robes shimmered in the soft yellow light, softly draping their gold and silver flesh

  Glancing at the women as we flew past, I frowned. “What’s with the harem?”

  Dialle gave them only the merest glance as we entered the alcove created by the arched entranceway. “They vie for the king’s attention. He is supposed to be choosing a new queen but he apparently suffers from the human condition called ADD. He can’t seem to focus on one woman for any length of time.”

  I sensed Dialle wanted to say more but Gerch pushed one of the gilded doors inward and Dialle’s attention was forced elsewhere. He drew himself up with a sigh and grabbed my arm. “Come, my father is a very impatient creature.”

  Dialle led the way through the gilded doors. He pulled me into the room behind him and all but dragged me to his side, where he immediately put an arm around my waist and proceeded to rip my mental drawers open. Show no fear Astra.

  What’s to fear? I responded in a negligent mental tone and he turned to arch a midnight brow at me.