“Yes,” Eberny said, watching her.
But if sex with Erion, with anyone, was the key to unlocking the portals, why wouldn’t Eberny have told her before? Hellen wouldn’t have wasted a moment. She’d wanted Erion desperately, and he’d wanted her.
Her mouth thinned and the fear-laced vibration was back. “There is more. What is it?”
Eberny regarded her with cool eyes. “Do you know that the citizens of Hell are grateful for what you did, Hellen? Abbadon’s cruelty and tyranny was a strain on the society for too long. It is why there was no revolt when you ended his life. They accept you.”
Hellen moved away from the rock. Something was growing within her, something other than fear. What was it? Anger . . . Violence . . . “I don’t understand where you’re going with this. They know what? Accept what? What are you talking about?”
“I speak of your kind, your demons.”
“I have one demon, and he’s back in my bed,” she snarled, letting the feeling rise to the surface.
“Hellen.”
“I want nothing from you, Eberny, nothing from this place.”
“This is your home.”
Hellen didn’t want to hear any more. She’d made up her mind. She turned and headed for the archway.
Eberny followed. “Your mother named you for your birthplace.”
“I know. I know the story—”
“Then you know she also named you for the world you would rule someday.”
Hellen stopped just inside the arch. She slowly turned to face the hybrid. Eberny no longer wore the usual mask of indifference. Within the hybrid’s expression passion and fire now flared, along with a need to force Hellen’s hand.
“Why didn’t you tell me that sex was the final puzzle piece in opening the portals?” Hellen whispered in a caustic voice. “You knew I was going to sleep with my demon male.”
Eberny’s gaze flickered with heat. “You might not have if you knew that the very portal you must open to release your lover is the very one you will not be walking through with him.”
Hellen’s demon emerged and lunged at the hybrid. “Liar!”
Eberny drew back, out into the purple end of night once again. “I took you from your bed, from your one night with your lover, to show you the world you have inherited, the world you will govern.”
“I refuse it!” Hellen roared, stalking after Eberny. She would tear the hybrid apart. This is what she feared. This was her father inside her—and right now, it pleased her to call upon it.
But Eberny’s eyes weren’t filled with fear. They glittered as if Hellen’s visceral response was precisely what the hybrid was after. “It is a call you cannot refuse, Hellen. You have a responsibility here. Your mother warned you of this. It is why she begged you not to unleash your monster.”
“Do not speak of my mother,” Hellen growled, barreling down on the hybrid.
Oh, gods. What don’t I know? What didn’t she tell me?
“I wanted you to know this now,” Eberny continued with slightly less calm than a moment ago. “Perhaps you wish to say good-bye.”
“I’m not saying good-bye to anyone but you.”
The hybrid’s back hit the rock. “You are the new Demon Queen, Hellen.”
Hellen coiled over Eberny. “No!”
“Yes, Your Highness. You are the Devil.”
20
Erion awoke to warm, soft hands raking up his abdomen and a hot mouth drawing on his cock. Nostrils flaring and his head still heavy from sleep, he glanced down. What he saw made him groan with lust and happiness. Hellen was easing her head back and pressing the tip of her tongue inside the slit in the head of his cock.
“You want me to fuck your pretty mouth, demon girl?” he uttered, his entire body a hot rush of insanity and need. “All the way to the back of your throat.”
She moaned, taking him deep as she reached around his hips to grip his ass. She squeezed him hard, so hard her nails dug into his skin and he cursed and thrust his hips forward. He let his head fall back, then thrust into her mouth and quickly withdrew. She moaned, lapped at him with her tongue. Again he thrust into her. But this time, she held tight to his ass and kept him inside her mouth with a deep sucking action.
Erion groaned, his abdomen rippling. Shit. He was going to come. Hot and heavy. And though the thought of releasing inside her sweet mouth made him nearly lose his mind, he wanted inside her in the most desperate way.
In two quick and gentle movements, her mouth was off his cock and he had her sitting astride him. Damn, he mused, if this was how sleeping could turn out, I’ve just become a fan.
Then he got a look at her face, and his gut twisted and burned. She wasn’t demon, flaring and flashing with lust as she shifted against his groin. She was desperate, worried, anxiety-ridden Hellen, and he grasped her hands and held them tightly.
“What’s wrong? Tell me . . .” he demanded, but she cut off his words with a shake of her head.
“I need you,” she said breathlessly. “I need all of you. Right now. Please. Inside me.”
Erion growled. Gods, he wanted her, wanted to please her and give her what she asked for—his dick was screaming for her wet heat—but her eyes worried him and her fear scent made him insane.
“Hellen . . .”
“Don’t, Erion,” she begged. “Don’t think. Not right now.” She pressed against his chest and his hands and lifted her hips. “I need this. I need you. You have no idea how much.”
She lowered herself on him, taking his cock all the way, filling her, stretching her. Erion groaned at the feeling of her tight, hot pussy, her lips pressed against his groin. He had already been driven so far by her mouth. There was nothing he could grab on to to take him back to her worry and strain. He was utterly and totally consumed by heat and the raw desire to fuck.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, Erion. That’s what I want.”
She rode him, slow and sensual at first, her hands braced on his chest, kneading his flesh. She was incredible, the most beautiful female he’d ever seen, and she was his. He had her blood inside his veins and on his tongue to prove it.
He gripped her hips and slammed her forward, his feet flexing and his fangs dropping as her cunt squeezed his dick to perfection. Every night he could have her like this. Every morning he could bury his head between her thighs and let her wake to orgasm.
He had love.
Shit, he had so much love.
Her eyes were on him, delving into his depths, and he wondered what she saw inside him or what she was looking for. Did she see how much he loved her?
Then her eyes drifted closed, her lips parted, and her head dropped back.
The sweet honey vice of her cunt suckled him, warned him of the impending quake. Erion felt more precum exit his cock, and he drove into her madly, knowing she was on the verge and desperate to make her scream.
“Come for me, demon girl!”
A cry so pained and erotic ripped from her throat and she shattered around him. Erion felt her muscles contract violently against his shaft, and he couldn’t stop himself. The grip was too hot, too tight, her cream drenching him, and he squeezed her hips and slammed her against him. Hot seed spilled into her cunt, joining the wet heat of her climax, and as he slowly pumped within her, Hellen collapsed on top of him and wrapped her arms around his chest. Hearing her pant and whimper, Erion forgot about the ecstasy raging inside him and just held her close, demon to demon, male to female.
“Hellen . . . ?”
“I’m all right,” she uttered. “Everything’s all right.”
She was sprawled on his chest, holding him as tightly as he was holding her, both of them breathing heavily, both of them coming down from the intensity of climax, but Erion felt something on his chest; something hot and wet that worried him.
She didn’t want to
talk. He knew that. He would respect that. But he would also hold her close and rub her back and pray that the droplets of hot rain against his shoulder were only sweat and not a display of a fragile, pained heart.
• • •
Hellen willed the tears away. There was nothing to be sad or worried about. Eberny’s revelations had no impact on her decision. No matter what the hybrid had said or what names she had claimed belonged to her, Hellen was not giving up her life for someone again. The Underworld would find a new leader, a devil of its choosing. It was not going to be her. The only thing she cared about was breathing and living and the beautiful demon vampire male beneath her.
Erion.
He was her future, her mate. The male she loved.
You could ask him to live here. If what the hybrid said is true and you have all the power of Hell, he would be welcomed as a king, and your sisters as true and honored princesses. You wouldn’t have to give up the home you love, the Rain Fields, the ash, the fireflowers . . .
Her eyes moved to the edge of the bed. the fireflower was still there, still open.
She couldn’t ask him that. He had Ladd, needed to be close to him. He wanted to be a true father to the boy, and after seeing what a true father actually was, Hellen would never allow them to be separated again.
“You aren’t like your father. You’re not the Devil. You are my angel.”
She pushed the insecurities and fears from her mind as Erion’s hands continued to brush her back, pet her, soothe her.
She wasn’t the Devil. No matter what Eberny claimed, Hellen would never accept it. And in the morning she was going to walk away. No, she was going to run. With him and with Ladd and her sisters to a new life, and never look back.
• • •
“What’s wrong with her?”
Alexander continued to stare at the veana. It was amazing how much she looked like Sara. Though her eyes were a much lighter shade of blue, her facial structure and hair color were exactly the same.
Was it actually possible that Sara and Gray’s sister stood before him?
“She’s upset,” Alex told her gently.
“Because of me?”
He toyed with the idea of lying to her but found it pointless. “Yes. You look like someone she knows, someone close to her.”
“Well, I’m sorry for her, but I can’t stay here.” Her gaze flickered toward Whistler. “He forced me to come here, drugged me with something.”
Alex’s gaze shot to the Eye. “That was not what we discussed!”
Whistler snorted. “You wanted the veana who matched that blood sample, Roman. You didn’t specify how to bring her in or, more importantly, how not to.”
“Get out,” Alex snarled. “Get out before I tear you apart. I’ve been wanting to for ever so long.”
The Eye stumbled toward the door, grabbing his phone and shoes. “You’ll be back, Roman. When you need something more. Something far more dire than finding your mate’s sister.”
The veana gasped as the hotel room door burst open and Whistler walked out.
Alex turned back to face her.
“I don’t know who you’re looking for or why,” the female said, clutching her pregnant belly. “But I’m not it. I’m nothing.”
The door opened again, but it wasn’t Whistler who walked in and moved past Alex. It was Celestine. She was together now, calm.
The veana’s eyes filled with fear as she watched Cellie approach. “I need to go,” she implored her. “Please.”
“Do you know who I am?” Celestine asked her.
The veana shook her head. “And I really suck at guessing.” She looked from Cellie to Alex, then back to Cellie again. “Look, whatever you have planned, understand that I will fight to the death. No one will lay a hand on me or my baby.”
“What are you running from?” Cellie asked. “Or who?”
A thread of distrust shimmered in her pale blue eyes. “I’m looking for my father. He’s a very powerful vampire who would do great damage to anyone who held me against my will. You would be wise to let me go.”
“Your father is a powerful vampire, is he?” Cellie repeated. “And what about your mother?”
A dark shadow claimed that glimmer in a hurry. “I don’t have a mother.”
Celestine sniffed. “Everyone has a mother, my dear.”
“What I mean is, she’s not around, not in the picture.”
“What happened to her?” Cellie moved a foot closer.
The veana didn’t like being backed into a corner, and she growled. “That’s not really any of your business, is it?”
Seeing how agitated the veana was becoming, Cellie stopped and lifted her hands in submission. “I won’t play these games any longer. I know your father. I met him a long time ago.” The veana’s sharp intake of breath didn’t slow her. “I was mated, but my male was being held for castration by the Order, the rulers of the vampire breed. It was one of the worst days of my life. I went to a member of the Order, to Cruen. I begged him to release my mate—I said I would do anything he asked. Anything.”
The female’s blue eyes widened. “You knew my father?”
Celestine nodded. “I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. You’re a smart veana—I can tell.”
The female lifted her chin. “You slept with him to get your mate released.”
“Yes.”
She frowned. “You found yourself pregnant.”
Alex could practically see her mind working, straining to gain information but refusing it at the same time.
“That’s right,” Cellie said gently.
“Okay.” The veana looked down, shrugged in a forced way. “I get it. You had a child; you think I’m that child. You came to find me.” She shook her head, laughed without humor, and said tightly, “I’ll save you the trouble. I’m not interested. Now can I leave?”
Alexander was stunned. He hadn’t expected a grand reunion or tears of joy. But this response completely surprised him, and by the look on Cellie’s face, she was feeling the same.
“I could be your mother,” Cellie said, her gaze pinned to the female.
She shook her head again. “No. I told you. I don’t have a mother. I don’t want or need a mother. What I need is to get out of here.” She started toward the door, her entire body jacked up on nerves and fear.
“There is a male who might come looking for you if he learns of your existence,” Alexander called after her, tracking her movement. “He wishes your father dead, and he will stop at nothing to make him pay. Be on your guard. His name is Synjon Wise.”
Of all the things that he and Cellie had said to her, this was the one that made her turn white and terror fill her eyes. “No,” she whimpered. “You can’t let him find me.”
Alex looked at Cellie, but the veana had her gaze pinned to the young female.
“You can’t let him see me,” she cried out.
“You may not want a mother, but, honey, you got one,” Cellie said, then went to the veana and put a hand on her trembling shoulder. “And she’s going to help you whether you like it or not.”
21
“Do you feel the shift of power within you?” Eberny asked, moving around Hellen as she stood in the very center of the carved-out rock.
“Yes,” Hellen said. They had been working since daybreak, the hybrid instructing her with each step as she found her rhythm. “It’s as though I’m taking from the rock, from its structure, its strength, pulling it into my blood and sending it back out, farther and farther until I feel the edges of our world and theirs.”
“Very good. You are quick,” Eberny praised. “You see the barrier in your mind, the hellfire?”
“Yes. But—” She opened her eyes. “Mine is green. My hellfire is different from . . .”
“From Abbadon’s, yes. So much o
f you and what you are made up of is different, Hellen.” The hybrid stopped circling her and came to stand before her. “You could do so much good.”
They were words she didn’t want to hear, refused to hear. “I’m going, Eberny.”
The hybrid sighed. “You won’t be able to survive up there for any length of time. Why do you think Abbadon was so intent on getting a foothold on Earth? As the Devil, he could remain only for a few of their days at most. He believed the blood, the DNA of vampire/demon child, would grant him that.”
Finding her power, unleashing it, containing it; the work had made her emotions flare. “I’ll go for as long as I can.”
“Then what?” Eberny demanded, this new ferocity unnerving.
“I don’t know.” Turmoil, frustration, fury all ran through her. She was trapped, always trapped.
“I do.” Eberny turned away, blue robes swishing with the movement. “You will die. And in the meantime, Hell will have no one to rule and govern and inspire.”
“I could go and come back,” Hellen offered. “Travel back and forth. I can live in both places.”
“You don’t understand. You don’t want to see the truth in this situation.”
“I don’t turn away from the truth, Eberny!” she cried. “I never have! I’m just trying to find answers, some solution that doesn’t involve me getting my fucking heart broken.”
There was a moment between them of silence, of sadness; then the hybrid sighed heavily. “If you went aboveground, once you return to Hell you must allow your body to readjust before you could go back.”
“How long is that?” Hellen asked greedily. “A day?”
Eberny didn’t answer.
“A week? What?” Dammit. She was in love. The male loved her. This had to work—she would make it work. “Why do I have to give up everything?”
“Why do you see it that way?” The hybrid turned around. “This is your home. Without Abbadon, Hell could be a wonderful place for demons.”
Eternal Demon: Mark of the Vampire Page 25