One thing remained certain. She would not give him up. She could not live without him. Nor did she want to. She was no longer hunted. She was caught.
She loved him.
But she could not fully explain her dilemma to him without confessing her part in a plot against him, and he would not take such news well. He was not at peace with their relationship, as she was. He did not like being bound. It made him feel weak.
It made her feel strong. When she was with him, nothing else mattered. She loved him with all her heart. Yet he was a demon. He held his emotions in tighter constraint than she did. To him, she was a possession. She had no idea if he was even capable of love.
She had only a few days left in which to find out.
That evening, she was more careful. She saw no signs of Mamna, or anyone else, following her.
As she lay in his arms beneath the stars, languid from their union, she thought this was the part she would miss most of all if they were forced to separate. The physical pleasures of this world were unlike anything she had ever experienced, but the pleasures with him were beyond comparison.
She turned to face him. “We can’t continue like this. Sooner or later we’ll be discovered. We may have been already.”
He shrugged. “Then don’t leave me. Stay here.”
He made it sound so easy. It was far from that, and yet he would never understand. Demons had no love for each other.
He reached across her with one arm, his weight heavy, and groped at the ground as if searching for something. When he settled back again, he held a flat object in his hand. Attached to it was a long, slender chain. “This is for you.”
He draped it around her neck. She picked it up to examine it more closely. It was an amulet, carved from plain red desert varnish and imprinted with the shape of a lightning bolt. Warmth leached into her fingertips as she smoothed them across its rough surface.
“This will allow you unmolested movement through demon territory,” he said. “As much as I’d like to, I can’t be with you every moment of every day.” His eyes smoldered with banked demon fire, as they often did when he made love to her. “Although I’ll be with you each night. I no longer have any desire to hunt.”
She smiled, blinking back tears, touched by the gesture. His feelings for her were deeper than she’d dare to hope. He had crafted protection for her. The goddesses made similar gestures to the mortal men they favored. Their amulets let the sisters know that a man had been spoken for. In return, it allowed the men to be warned when immortals were near.
He thought that he could protect her from demons with this amulet, and perhaps he could.
But not from the goddesses.
She was not afraid of them. She was afraid of being parted from them, and of being ostracized, because she loved them. Her bond with them was different, but equally as strong.
Yet theirs was not the bond that tore her heart to shreds whenever they were apart.
Awareness of her heart’s desire illuminated her situation with more clarity. If she distanced herself from her sisters, she thought it possible she would survive the rift. She did not believe she could survive being parted from him. If she could convince him to leave the other immortals behind and run away with her, where might they go so that they could be together with this same delirious physicality?
A shard of hope pierced through her dilemma. There was more to this world than the small corner the goddesses had allotted the immortals after the demons arrived. Could she get him past the boundary of mists surrounding the desert regions that the goddesses had created to protect the recovering world?
If so, would he go with her?
She pressed his amulet to her lips, then let it fall on its chain to rest between their two bodies. “We could leave here,” she said to him. “We could run away together.”
He frowned at the stars, the bubble of peacefulness that had settled around them after their lovemaking now ruptured. “I run from nothing and no one.”
“A poor choice of words on my part.” She settled tighter against him, resting her chin on his bare chest and her palm on his arm. She pressed a kiss to his jaw, then a second and third, in an effort to persuade him. “Come away with me. There’s nothing to keep either of us here. I’m already yours. You’ve found what you say you came to this world for.”
“But the others have not.” He cupped her hip with one broad, gentle hand, then absently trailed his fingers back and forth from the dip of her waist to the crest of her thigh.
“Demon numbers are far greater than goddess ones,” she said. “They can’t all form bonds such as ours.” She pushed a little harder, knowing possessiveness was a weakness with him in regard to her. He didn’t understand love. Loyalty was another matter entirely. “Unless a goddess can form a bond with more than one demon at a time. Do you think that might be possible?”
His fingers stilled in their wanderings, then tightened on her thigh, not enough to hurt her, but to establish ownership. He rolled over so that she was on her back and pinned beneath him. He gripped both of her hands in one of his and held them above her head.
“A goddess would not dare to accept more than one bond with a demon.” His frown deepened to a scowl. “You would not dare.”
“I had no say in ours. Neither did you. This,” she lifted her head to kiss the harshness from his mouth to emphasize her words, “simply happened.” Her voice softened as she gazed into his eyes, all the passion and longing she held for him sparkling in the golden pinpoints of light that shone from the pores of her skin. “I wouldn’t have it otherwise. You are the only demon I want.”
“And I’m all you’ll have. The others would not dare challenge me for you. Not while you wear my amulet.” He took her mouth with a kiss of feral intensity. His tongue swept against hers, leaving her gasping with need for him. He lifted his head long before she was ready to let him go. Triumph glittered in his eyes. “You’ll stay here with me.”
She wished she could. “I can’t. My sisters will come looking for me.”
“Do you think I fear a few women?”
She went still beneath him, drawing a quick, careful breath. “Perhaps you should.” This was as close as she dared come to a confession.
And to a warning for him.
He had the ill grace to laugh. “I forget nothing. It’s you who forget that goddesses are meant to belong to demons. That they are the hunted, we are the hunters.”
And yet he was the one bonded to her, she thought but did not say. Always, he sought confirmation that the bond was as strong for her as it was for him. It was. But her bond was comprised of love. His came more from an inherent desire to possess her.
She wondered how deep his desire for her truly ran…if it was enough to make him follow her if he believed she was leaving him.
“You’ve pursued goddesses both inside and outside of time,” she said. “Across the entire universe. And yet I’m the first to be caught. You shouldn’t forget that either. Or what happens when prey becomes cornered.”
He heard one message in her words. “Yes, you are caught. And you’re mine.” He smoothed a hand over her breast and down her abdomen so that she gasped with pleasure at the delicate caress, then slid his fingers between her thighs. She closed her eyes, lost in a relentless, unquenchable craving for both him and his touch. “Say it,” he commanded her. “Say that you are.”
It was true. She could not deny it. Or him.
“I’m yours.”
He took her again, but with such a fierce tenderness that afterward all she could think of was how much she wanted him, and what she needed to do in order to remain with him.
…
Her name was Allia.
She had whispered it against his lips moments before leaving him, and he understood how precious it was to her, how valuable the gift. Only her sisters and her handmaid knew it.
He had no name to offer her in return. He was the Demon Lord. That was how he was known, and he’d had no need for
any other.
Until now.
For a long time after she left him, he sat on the rocks near the edge of where her goddess-fed pool had been that first night. Its waters had either seeped into the ground or evaporated days ago, but the impression caused by its weight remained in the packed desert sand. The soil glittered with speckles of gold in the moonlight, the same way Allia’s flesh gleamed whenever he touched her. He could still smell her scent on his naked skin, warm and fresh and so intoxicating that it left him light-headed with need for her.
Other signs of her presence also remained. Where she went, life followed her. Grass sprang from the earth in their tiny oasis, thick and green. Small flowers, fragrant and colorful, bloomed out of season.
He pondered her words to him and what they meant.
She wanted to be with him always, but despite the amulet she’d accepted from him, did not believe it was possible. In a way, he supposed it was true. While he didn’t like the point she had raised about the inequality of their numbers and how that might impact the bond between demons and goddesses, he found he could not dispute her logic. He couldn’t put itfrom his thoughts.
He had no intention of allowing another demon close enough to her to find out if she was right. No demon would share. His amulet would leave her immune to their charms and give her the physical strength to withstand any type of assault.
But she had to want to withstand them. In that regard he would have to trust her, and trust was not something he did easily.
As he rose from the rocks and shifted to demon form, preparing for flight, he pushed worry aside. She was his. She had given him her name, and he had given her no reason to stray. Physically, she had been well satisfied when she left. But he did not like being parted from her.
That had to end.
…
Allia returned to the mountain temple as dawn reddened the sky.
She did not enter at once, but rather found a secluded spot in the sprawling forest where she could sit alone and think. She chose a wooden bench that crouched beneath a canopy of interwoven branches in an abandoned garden. The bench was gray and withered with age, and covered in a thick mantle of pine needles and curled leaves.
This place had once been a favored refuge, but the goddesses had neglected it for so long that the mountain had reclaimed much of it. The change startled her. Immortals were not good at measuring time, and she had not realized so much of it had passed since she’d last been here.
The amulet she had been given was safely tucked in her clothing, near her heart. She did not want the others to see it, but she could not bear to take it off.
She had made her decision. Now she needed to find the courage to implement it.
Familiar footsteps approached, moving with caution through the underbrush, then hesitated, as if the person did not wish to interrupt her privacy but had no choice. She knew who it would be, and she could use her support.
“It’s all right,” Allia called out. “You can join me.”
Desire moved into view, pushing aside the low-hanging, grasping branches of pine and fir that had spread over the old path.
“Forgive me for intruding. You seemed troubled,” she said, the kind concern radiating from her face giving her a loveliness no immortal could ever possibly emulate.
This was yet another bond Allia had not fully realized was so important to her. Once touched by a goddess, a priestess was hers for life. While there had been other handmaids over the years, none were as devoted to her as Desire, who knew instinctively when something was wrong and sought her out to offer comfort.
“I’m leaving,” Allia said to her. “I have no idea what will happen to you when I go.”
Desire did not seem surprised by the announcement. She sat on the bench beside her and took her hand. “I’ll be fine. I knew after the first night you spent with him and said nothing about it to the others, that there was no turning back for you.”
“Why didn’t you say something to them? Or to me?”
Desire squeezed her fingers. “Who am I to offer guidance to any immortal?”
“My most trusted companion. My friend. I value you as much as my sisters.” Allia blinked back tears. “Am I making the wrong choice?”
“You’ll be giving up a lot for him,” Desire said. “What is he giving up for you in return?”
Nothing, as yet. She hoped that would change, and had given it a lot of thought. “I want to take him to the goddess boundary and see if my amulet, the one I wear, will help him cross through it with me. If it does, we can find another place on this world for us to be together.”
Desire chose her response carefully. “Why not leave this world entirely?”
“Because I can’t,” Allia confessed. “I could never bear to be so far from my sisters. I’ve come to love this world and everything in it, including the pleasures it brings me when I’m with him.” Especially those. If they were to leave, the bond between them would remain. So would the love. But the physical pleasures would be lost to them because those pleasures were mortal. “I don’t expect you to understand.” Desire took the wonders of her world for granted. She’d never known anything else, so had nothing to compare it against.
A twig cracked nearby. A squirrel dashed up a tree and chattered at the ground. Otherwise, the woods were silent.
“You think I don’t understand love?” the priestess finally asked. The long scar marring her face became less pronounced beneath the gentle radiance of her wistful smile. “With age comes wisdom, but the goddesses are ageless. You live in the moment without having to give thought to future consequences. Think of them now. I’ve known love of every kind, and it’s never easy to part with. Hold onto it as long as you can.” Desire pressed her fingers again. “I wish you nothing but happiness in your future. It’s no more than you deserve. And as long as you need me, for as long as I live, I’m your servant.”
Desire was right. Allia had never thought of her own future beyond her immediate requirements before. As an immortal, she’d had no need.
A twinge of unease trembled through her, leaving doubt in its wake as she wondered what else she had failed to consider.
Chapter Four
He waited for her in their usual place. She was late, and he was impatient. The passage of time chafed at him.
He had thought of a gift for her, one that would express his love and make her smile for him in return. Flowers bloomed in the basin of the dried pool of goddess rain, and he’d crafted a demonstration for her.
A noise in the cottonwoods caught his attention. He turned, ready to fight.
The only thing that saved the gnarled little woman was her shaved head. He recognized her as the priestess who had been spying on him for quite some time now, and he thought at first she might carry a message for him from Allia.
She kept her head down, with her eyes fixed on the cool, dew-dampened grass beneath her bare, misshapen feet, and waited for him to speak first. He wondered how long she had been watching him before she approached.
He was becoming too careless. Allia consumed his thoughts to the exclusion of everything else, particularly here in a place that was theirs alone, and he did not like this intrusion.
“Why do you spy on me, Priestess?” he demanded. “And what are you doing here, so far from the goddesses’ temple and its protection?”
“My name is Mamna, and I wish only to serve you,” she said. “You have been betrayed.”
The Demon Lord did not want to believe her or the story she told. He was used to women wishing to serve him. They would do or say anything to win his favor, and the priestess’s was not the first head to be turned by false hopes. No mortal could resist the allure of a demon.
Allia would not plot against him. She was his. She loved him.
He loved her.
This was some trick of her sisters.
“Watch and see,” Mamna declared. “She will offer you a pendant, a small mountain stone of no obvious beauty or value, with all of the
colors of the rainbow. She’ll tell you it’s a symbol of her love for you. She’ll tell you it offers immunity against the goddesses, just as the amulet you gave her protects her from demons. But it is the same stone the goddesses give to their favored mortal men. It is meant to enslave you. It will bind you to her as surely as it binds them.” Mamna held out her hand, raising her eyes to his. She had a handful of the same colored stones, some set in pendants, others as yet unpolished. “Have you seen these before?”
He had. Allia wore one herself, yet he had not seen it on her the last time they were together. Dread mixed with anger, to swirl like acid in his stomach.
“If you are lying, you’re dead,” he said to her.
She did not recoil from his anger. Beneath her ugly exterior he recognized a solid core of ruthless courage and determination. She reeked of ambition. “I’m telling the truth.”
She lied. Allia would not betray him.
And yet doubt niggled at him.
You forget what we are. You’ve pursued goddesses both inside and outside of time. Across the entire universe. And yet I’m the first to be caught. You shouldn’t forget that either. Or what happens when prey becomes cornered.
He did not like to think that he had been such a great fool, but now he wondered if there’d been a warning hidden in her words.
When she saw he had nothing more to say, the ugly little priestess left him alone. He listened hard so as to be certain of her departure.
It seemed like forever before Allia arrived. Her golden, long-legged beauty snatched his breath from him. She wore the amulet he had given her. It nestled above her breasts, dull against her glowing skin. The sight of her wearing something of his increased his sense of possession.
“What kept you?” he demanded.
“My sisters.”
She said nothing more than that, and before the priestess’s story, he might have accepted it as enough. Now, with opened eyes, he read the underlying tension in her. Whatever they had wanted from her, it left her uneasy and dimmed much of her inner light.
He was not ready to confront her about the priestess’s claims. His need for her was too great, and it seemed like forever to him since he’d last been with her.
The Demon Lord (A Demon Outlaws Novella) (Entangled Edge) Page 3