“Asmodeus?” Liora’s soft voice called to him, soothing some of his pain, and she moved in his arms.
He opened his eyes and looked up at her. Her hands pressed against his bare chest, burning into his flesh in the most delicious way.
“Are you okay?” she whispered and brushed the hair from his brow, concern lighting her hazel eyes. They searched his and he basked in her worry and the compassion and affection she showed him.
“I will live,” he said to alleviate her concern and then grimaced as a wet tongue slapped at his cheek.
Liora squealed and shot backwards, straight into the bulky black body of Romulus. The hellhound growled, exposing twin rows of deadly sharp black teeth. Remus stopped licking Asmodeus and lifted his head too, his red gaze locking on Liora.
“Heel,” Asmodeus commanded in the demonic tongue and the two hellhounds whimpered and moved to him. They lay beside him and nuzzled his cheeks, whining low in their throats.
It was difficult when he was lying on the ground, but he managed to twist enough to pet them on their muzzles and soothe them.
They sat up when he pushed himself up and moved closer, crowding him. Romulus trod on one of his wing feathers, pulling on it. Asmodeus grimaced and pushed him away. Foolish mutts. They always had wanted to sit on him rather than beside him, and were forever accidentally catching him with their claws or treading places that hurt.
Liora stood and offered her trembling hand to him, earning her another growl from both Romulus and Remus.
“Quiet,” he snapped in his native language again and the hellhounds lowered their heads and settled down to lie beside him, resting their jaws on their large paws.
He took Liora’s hand, lumbered onto his feet and ran his gaze over her. She had a few scratches on her bare arms but other than that and her pale complexion, she seemed unharmed by her fall.
He wanted to take her back to her realm but he couldn’t yet. The Devil would know he had entered Hell and would become suspicious if he didn’t report in. She would be safe here at his castle in the wasteland, far from the Devil’s fortress and his army of Hell’s angels. Romulus and Remus kept the area clear of demons too, hunting and devouring any who strayed too close to the spire of rock on which his castle stood.
Romulus and Remus would protect her while he went to the Devil.
The two black hellhounds sat up and Liora moved closer to him, eyeing them warily.
“Come,” he said and the two got to their paws and trotted over to him.
Liora tensed and clutched his arm in both of her hands, and he liked the way she did that, using him as a shield, relying on him to protect her even though she wasn’t in any danger.
The hellhounds sat in front of him and started panting. Remus’s left ear drooped and then perked up again. He never had been able to keep it fully straightened. It somewhat spoiled his vicious, deadly appearance when it drooped and refused to stand again, giving him a lopsided look.
“Liora, this is Romulus and Remus.” Asmodeus pointed to each hellhound in turn and they both looked up at her, their ears pricking and their panting halting.
“They look the same to me.” Liora moved closer to him and the hellhounds, but remained slightly tucked behind him.
Her breasts pressed against his bare arm, wrecking his concentration. They were soft and warm, and he wanted to palm them.
“Will they be upset if I call them by the wrong names? Will they eat me?”
Asmodeus laughed. “No. They always travel together, ever since they were pups seven centuries ago and I found them in an empty den.”
“Where were their parents?” Liora emerged from behind him, her curious gaze fixed on the two hellhounds, a spark of sympathy emerging in it.
“The mother was dead a few metres from the den. I am not sure what killed her,” he said casually, remembering the day he had gone out to survey his realm and had spotted the butchered carcass from the air, and had found the twin pups nearby.
“So you brought them home?” There was a twinkle in her hazel eyes that he didn’t understand. She looked almost pleased.
He nodded. “I brought them to the castle and took care of them.”
She smiled at him.
“What is wrong? Did I say something strange?”
She shook her head, causing her tangled chestnut waves to brush across the crimson shoulders of her gypsy top. “No. I think it’s good that you took the hounds in and raised them… protected them. You must have spent hours each day taking care of them… feeding them… cleaning them… teaching them. It was very sweet of you, Asmodeus.”
Ah, he could see why she had smiled at him now, and it left him feeling uncomfortable and unsure what to say. He didn’t view what he had done as an act of charity, not as she did. He hadn’t even thought about it at the time. He had seen the pups alone, their mother gone, and knew they would die. He hadn’t been able to leave them.
He had done just as she had said. He had raised them, weaned them, fed them and trained them. He had taken care of them and they had taken care of him.
They both whined and looked up at him, their red eyes bright in the low light. Asmodeus petted them, rubbing the spots between their ears, feeling they knew his thoughts.
He crouched and they moved to sit in front of him.
He stared into their eyes and spoke to them in the demon tongue he had raised them to understand.
“Take care of Liora. She is precious to me. I am counting on you to keep her safe. Understand?”
They nuzzled his hands and nipped at his palms and he knew what they were telling him even though he didn’t have the power of telepathy so he couldn’t hear their reply.
“Is that the language you taught them?” Liora said from behind him.
He looked over his shoulder at her, stood, and nodded. “They will do as I bid and protect you.”
Liora toyed with a small silver pentagram around her neck, twirling it in her fingers and then clutching it in her right palm. He hadn’t noticed it before now. It must have been tucked beneath the frilled elastic neck of her crimson top the whole time they had been together, hidden from view. Between her breasts. He swallowed at that thought and stared at them.
She stopped playing with the pendant and he felt her gaze on him. When he finally dragged his away from her small pert breasts, she was blushing and there was that darkness in her eyes again, the one that said his staring had affected her, stirring passion that echoed within him.
“Thank you,” she said and then looked down at Romulus and Remus. “Thank you, too.”
They stared blankly at her. Asmodeus relayed her gratitude in the demon tongue and they began panting again. Remus’s left ear drooped. Asmodeus sighed and straightened it for him.
Liora hid her smile well.
Asmodeus turned to her. “You will be safe here. No one dares venture close to the castle and my hellhounds will protect you. Wait for me.”
Her relaxed air dissipated and she caught his wrist. “You’re leaving?”
He nodded. “I must report.”
Her nerves increased and he sighed and stepped closer to her, until her body brushed his and she had to tilt her head back to hold his gaze. He lifted his right hand and swept his knuckles across her cheek, marvelling over how soft it was beneath his caress and how she let him do such a thing. She closed her eyes and he opened his hand, laid his palm against her face, and she leaned into it.
He had never had anyone seek comfort from him before. The experience was incredible and overwhelming, and ignited a fierce need to stay and protect her. He wanted to make her feel safe.
Liora opened her hazel eyes and looked up at him, a soft needful look in them. His heart raced, anticipation stealing his breath and making it hard to focus. He wanted to fulfil that wish he could see in her eyes. He would, but not right now. He would do so later, when they had time, because once he began kissing her, he wouldn’t want to stop.
“I will not let anything happen to you
, Liora, and neither will Romulus and Remus.” He stroked her cheek again, savouring the silky warmth of her skin and how she sought comfort from him.
“Those angels—”
“Cannot enter this castle or the grounds around it,” he interjected and she looked up at the tall towers of his black castle that rose above them, tipped with spiked roofs.
“Your home,” she whispered and he nodded, conceding that it was just that to him.
His home.
“You will be safe here, in my home. The Hell’s angels cannot enter here and the Devil cannot travel this far from the bottomless pit. No one will bother you. I swear it.” He dropped a brief kiss on her forehead and stepped back from her.
Before she could convince him to linger any longer, he threw his hand forwards and a portal appeared. He stepped into the swirling black vortex and through it, coming out close to the Devil’s obsidian fortress.
It speared the sky in the distance, black and forbidding, each tower taller than the last until it melted into the darkness. Black sharp spikes almost seventy feet tall curved around it and the expansive courtyard, forming a vicious wall intended to keep most demons out as they couldn’t fly and scaling the spires was impossible. Part of the wall was lower than the rest, the result of the Devil’s battle against his daughter, Erin, and Veiron, a traitorous Hell’s angel. The shards were slowly repairing themselves, bleeding lava from close to their newly forming peaks, but it would be many months before they towered as high as the rest.
Asmodeus took a few deep breaths to settle his nerves. He would not let the Devil have Liora. No matter what happened during this meeting with his master, she would be safe.
Even if the Devil killed him.
He casually strode towards the fortress, buying himself time to get his nerves under control and extinguish them together with the pain that still ebbed and flowed through his body. He would not show any weakness in front of the Devil. If he did, the male would realise that he already had Liora and would exploit the weakness that came from his feelings for her. He would play on them and taunt Asmodeus, and then he would probably command him to bring her to him.
He was regaining his strength, but was still weak. In his current state, he wouldn’t be able to resist if the Devil used the full might of his power on him.
He had to try though. He had to do what he must to keep his promise to Liora and keep her safe.
He crossed the cragged black landscape, following a wide path that wound through the short columns of rock that belched smoke and magma. The lava hissed as it rolled down their bumpy faces, cooling despite the fiery heat of Hell. He had never realised before now just how hot this realm was, the air thick with the scent of sulphur and other chemicals that turned it acrid.
Small brown and grey scaly demons scurried away as he approached, disappearing into the harsh terrain.
When he reached the formidable wall that encircled the Devil’s fortress, he spread his large black feathered wings and flew up the spires. His wings ached with each beat, sending fire along their bones and down his back. He gritted his teeth and flew higher and over the top of the wall.
From above, it was easy to see the damage the Devil’s battle against his daughter had done to the courtyard. The polished black flagstones had cracked and buckled in some areas, fused together at vicious angles by cooled lava. The place was a mess. Only a few sections of the paving had survived intact, most of them close to the imposing fortress.
It had been his home once, many centuries ago, when he had been happy living under the same roof as his master.
The Devil had not been pleased when he had decided to leave the fortress and set about building his own castle in a wasteland far away, miles beyond his reach during the times when he was limited to the bottomless pit. He had accused Asmodeus of plotting to create his own realm, one that would challenge his reign.
Asmodeus had scoffed at that. He had no interest in running Hell. He had merely wanted a place of his own where he could do as he pleased.
He landed on a smooth section of the courtyard near the steps that led up to the fortress.
The tall twin doors opened a crack and the Devil stepped out, dressed impeccably in a sharp black suit with a patterned black tie.
Sometimes when Asmodeus looked in one of the tarnished mirrors in his castle, he could see this male in him. Those same golden eyes looked back at him, framed by the same long black lashes, from a face crowned by the same wild short black hair.
Asmodeus hated it. It was worse than seeing Apollyon staring back at him.
He was a clone of neither of those males. He was his own man, with his own history and his own destiny.
He was not a shadow.
“Asmodeus,” the Devil said, his smooth baritone filled with warmth that Asmodeus knew was false and placed there to make him feel the male was pleased to see him. “I half expected you to disobey my order again and remain in that mortal realm. I trust you found it to your liking and enjoyed the brief moment you had there?”
“I did. I will return to it when I see fit.”
“Will you now?” The Devil’s mouth curled into a wicked smile and his amber eyes flashed. “And how will you do that?”
The male meant to taunt him but it wouldn’t work. The Devil could restrict his power to use a portal to reach that realm all he wanted, attempting to control him and keep him in Hell against his will, but it wouldn’t stop Asmodeus.
“Under my own volition. I have discovered that I share another power of Apollyon’s that you failed to mention before.” Asmodeus allowed himself a small smile of victory when the grin on his master’s face faded and his expression soured. “I see you were aware of it. I can apparently create the rift between this realm and the mortal one, just as he can. I do not have to rely on the power of creating portals that you granted me.”
Discovering that power had led Asmodeus to consider what other ones he possessed that the Devil had kept hidden from him. It had only been a brief consideration. Liora had dropped into the rift he had created just as he had thought it and his focus had shot to her instead. When he returned to her at his castle, he would ask her about Apollyon to discover what she knew of his powers and he would ponder whether he could use them too.
“Very well. You may come and go as you please… when you have brought the female to me.” The Devil brushed the sleeves of his suit jacket and picked at something with his black claws.
“What do you want with her?” Asmodeus advanced a step, coming to stand at the bottom of the steps that led up to the fortress.
“That is my business. You have never questioned me before and it is unwise to begin to do so now. What I desire the female for will remain my business.”
Asmodeus lowered his hands to his sides and his fingers twitched, eager to feel the hilts of his blades in them. “If you want me to retrieve her for you, then you will tell me.”
The Devil smiled again, exposing short fangs. “You think to threaten me?”
He did. It was insane, but it was his only choice. He needed to know why the Devil wanted Liora so he could better protect her.
Something dawned in the Devil’s golden eyes. “Ah… I had wondered what had happened. You have been busy, Asmodeus… killing one of your own.”
“The male you sent was not one of my own. I have no kin. He showed me no respect and so I taught him a lesson. I removed his head.” Asmodeus straightened to his full height, flapped his black wings and furled them against his bare back, allowing none of the pain it caused him to show on his face. “He will not make the same mistake again.”
“And because of your impertinence, I am down a man. You know I should punish you for the crime you committed.”
Asmodeus laughed. “Crime? You taught me to gain the respect of those beneath me through showing them what would happen should they disappoint me, and you taught me well. I will not tolerate the disrespect of your men.”
“And I will not tolerate your disrespect.” Th
e Devil flexed his fingers and black fire chased over them, fluttering across his knuckles. The power he constantly emanated grew in strength, washing over Asmodeus and pressing down on him.
Asmodeus’s power rose to meet it, shielding him from the full force of the Devil’s. He wouldn’t be able to match the Devil’s strength if the male went all out on him, but he would do his best, for Liora’s sake. She was expecting him to return to her. If he didn’t, she would be stuck in this realm until Apollyon came for her.
That didn’t sit well with Asmodeus.
He would not allow his twin to be her saviour.
“You do not know what you are dealing with, Asmodeus.” The Devil straightened to his full height and black ribbons of smoke twined around his fingers, streaming from his obsidian claws.
“Then tell me what I am dealing with. Tell me what you want with the female.” Asmodeus wouldn’t cower before his master. The Devil meant to keep him in the dark and he would never allow that to happen. He needed to know why the Devil wanted Liora and what he would do to her if he got his hands on her, not that Asmodeus would ever allow that to happen.
“I told you, that is my business. I will only tell you that she is dangerous in the wrong hands.”
Dangerous? Liora was powerful but she was mortal. Her magic was strong, but her body was weak. It wouldn’t hold out in a battle against a strong demon or angel, and definitely not against his master.
“Dangerous in your hands, perhaps.” Asmodeus held his master’s gaze, unflinching even when the Devil narrowed his eyes on him and his power rose, the air growing thicker around him. “Tell me why she is dangerous and I will consider bringing the female to you.”
“Lies. You dare lie to me? I created you, Asmodeus, and I can destroy you just as easily. Remember that.”
Asmodeus glared at him and spat out a vile curse in the black language of Hell.
“Tell me, Asmodeus, is she worth the pain you will suffer?” The Devil’s tone dripped venom and his gaze gained a cruel edge, his wicked smile conveying his black thoughts and the pleasure he felt from thinking about torturing Asmodeus.
Her Wicked Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 6) Page 9