The Darkest King

by Gena Showalter

  As Lucifer had already proven, reacting to barbs merely revealed a weakness. Ignoring the jabs, he said, “Go ahead. Keep underestimating me.” I have an ace up my sleeve. A unicorn predicted to aid my cause. Although...

  Did he want Sunny going head-to-head with Lucifer?

  The red haze returned to his eyes. “Until now,” he grated, “I’ve treated our battles as a form of foreplay. But the time has come to seriously fuck you up. Enjoy it. Or not. The choice is yours.”

  Now, to do the thing his ex-brother hated most—walk away. In essence: You mean nothing to me.

  William blew Lucifer a kiss, turned and rejoined the others.

  Lucifer maintained a neutral expression, but failed to release his fists. So telling. “You continue to provoke me when I have something you want very, very badly. You see, I went back to the Realm of Lleh soon after the witch cursed you. I took her and locked her away. If I couldn’t have your book, I’d have the next best thing.”

  With a laugh, William slung an arm around Hades’s shoulders. “Is that so? And what of my memories of removing her head?”

  “I was at your side, and you saw only what I wanted you to see.” In a blink, Lucifer’s image changed. From tall and stacked with muscle to the willowy Lilith. “An illusion, nothing more. You killed an innocent, and keep an innocent’s skull in your collection.”

  William swallowed, doubts surging. No, no. The Deceiver was doing what he did best. Lying.

  Lucifer returned to his original shape, and William wondered, What if he’s...not?

  His heart sped up, and his mind churned. Did the witch live? Could she negate her curse, or make it worse?

  Grinning, Lucifer walked backward. He slipped through the still-open portal. As he moved his gaze over the rest of the group, the grin turned brittle. Because they had what he didn’t? Friends.

  “One last thing before you go,” Hades said with a slow grin of his own. “I know you and every play in your war-book. I borrowed the one you just demonstrated.”

  Confusion abounded.

  “Oh?” Lucifer faked a yawn. “Do tell.”

  Hades’s grin grew wider. “The moment you left your principality, King Rathbone assumed your visage. By now, I’m sure he’s decimated half of your army. He’s good like that.”

  William patted the male on the back. That’s my father.

  Lucifer paled. “He can kill as many demons as he likes. He’ll never stop me.” He returned his attention to William. “You won’t, either. Lilith is helping me with a present for you and Axel. Expect it soon—and tears.” The portal closed, the bastard disappearing from view.

  Hades stalked to the front of the group. “Underworld wars tend to last centuries, but often lag. A strike here, a strike there, interspersed with periods of seeming peace. Judging by the look of murderous rage that fell over Lucifer’s face, the strikes are about to start up again. Be ready.”

  Oh, I’m ready, all right.

  Ding, ding, ding. Let the next battle begin.

  14

  “I have two loves: my dagger and my dick. One slays hard and fast, and the other is my dagger.”

  A moan parted Sunny’s lips as she writhed on the bed. Inhale. Exhale. Good, that was good. Innnn...ouuuut. In-out. Mating season hadn’t started, not officially, but the preseason practice rounds certainly had. Sudden bouts of sexual arousal, sated only with a male’s release. Trying to get herself off only made it worse. The fact that she hadn’t slept in forever made it unbearable.

  Fatigued, she became irritable. Irritable, she lamented Sable’s disappearance. Thoughts about Sable’s disappearance made her crave a distraction. Craving a distraction made her want William. Wanting William made her want to get off, but she couldn’t. See! Worse.

  She needed his kisses and his touch. His naked body pressed against hers. Her legs wrapped around his waist, or draped over his back. His ginormous shaft pounding in and out of her.

  Another moan escaped, this one ragged.

  Eventually, blessedly, she calmed. Feeling like she’d just survived a seven-car pileup, she trekked to the desk. Angry with William, she opened her diary of lists. Specifically, the list of sexual positions. She added a name to each position—Rathbone, Green, Galen, Rathbone again, Lucien and Fox. Something guaranteed to hit William where it hurt. Let him think she desired his friends.

  She left the diary open on the desk. Soon, he would return for their dinner with Hades...

  Tingling with anticipation, she showered, moisturized her skin and painted her nails black. Leaving her hair loose and free-flowing, she donned sexy-ish lingerie and a frilly blue dress, then applied shimmery lip gloss. Today’s torture? Teasing William with what he could not have. Her outfit had nothing to do with impressing him. Nope. Nothing.

  Bonus: her loveliness might distract him from the fact that she’d only managed to decode a single symbol in his book, despite staring at the photos all morning and afternoon. She’d seen a vial of poison, and she still didn’t know what it meant.

  Oh, she could guess. The method William’s ladylove would use to slay him, perhaps? But how was anyone supposed to poison an immortal like William? A Venus flytrap vagina?

  Sunny preferred to slay with a horn. Either hers, or ones she’d taken from fallen unicorns. Few immortals had the strength to recover from a horn wound. Would William?

  As if her thoughts had summoned him Beetlejuice-style, he pushed open the stable doors and strode inside. Just as before, he was all swagger and ferocity, the master of all he surveyed. His eyes blazed with...what was that? Sexual frustration?

  Must be. One look at him, and she burned with passion-fever all over again. Sweat beaded on her brow, her heart attempting to hurdle-jump her ribs.

  Never had she reacted to a male like this. The fact that it kept happening with her captor...

  She had two options. Keep fighting it, or finally give in, trusting him just enough to sleep with him.

  The different sides of her went to war.

  Fight it!

  Sleep with him!

  Fight!

  Sleep!

  Argh! Despise my dual nature.

  She couldn’t blame Roses and Rainbows Sunny for being a hussy, though. William had ditched the suit and changed into a black T-shirt and matching leathers. He looked good. Really good. Mouthwateringly good. There was a wildness to him now, a sharp edge and intensity she found irresistible, but also kind of disturbing. Had something bad happened during the meeting?

  “You tried to kill me when you thought I’d aided Lucifer in the destruction of your village,” he began, scanning the stable for her, “and you traded your freedom for an escort to his door. Which leads me to believe you are one of the assassins who has killed his allies over the years.”

  She didn’t try to deny it. “Yeah. So?”

  “So, I want to know who you took out, and I want to know everything you learned. Spare no detail. And don’t say no. You owe me. Ninety-five percent of the poachers and collectors on your list are now dead. The rest are soon to follow.”

  Ninety-five percent? So swiftly? Amazing! He was amazing. Admiring your captor again? Stop. You’ve got a punishment to oversee. “Shouldn’t you compliment me first?” Look at me, William...desire me...

  Spotting her, he skidded to a halt and scoured a hand through his hair. His shirt hiked up a bit, revealing a patch of bare skin, and she all but drooled. “Do us both a favor and stop getting more beautiful every time I see you.”

  He’d just complimented her, offering praise without expecting anything in return, and she jolted with surprise. Maybe she would cease the day’s torment. “So you like?”

  “I like.” His raspy voice sent shivers coursing down her spine. “I crave.”

  Her cheeks warmed. “I’ll tell you all about my experience with Lucifer’s allies, promise, but first I
’d like to show you what I did.”

  “Show me—” He sucked air between his teeth. “You broke the code?” His long stride ate up the distance. He stopped directly in front of her, his masculine musk filling her nose and fogging her head.

  Nerve endings sensitized, and pulse points fluttered, Sunny bit her tongue to silence a groan. “I decoded a single symbol, but I’m not sure what it means.” Exaggerating the roll of her hips, because why not, she sauntered to the bed, where she’d left the photos, and lifted a certain page.

  He followed, looked at her drawing, then Sunny herself. The drawing. Sunny. Appearing shell-shocked, he said, “It is you. There’s no doubt now.”

  “Me?” Her brows knitted together as she looked left, then right, and pointed to her chest. “It’s me, what? Your decoder?”

  “Yes,” he hissed, then shook his head, as if dislodging a painful thought. “You saw a vial of poison.”

  His awe had deepened along with his shock, yet she still didn’t understand. “Do you know what the poison signifies, then? Besides the obvious, I mean.”

  “Not yet, but I will.” Determination hardened his muscles. “But, let’s forget the poison for a moment. I need that info on Lucifer. Everything you’ve learned.”

  “What’s the rush?”

  “He claims he’s imprisoned the witch who cursed me.” He rested his hands on the hilts of his daggers, rage pulsing from him. “I want to know if it’s true, if any of his allies have mentioned Queen Lilith of Lleh. I want to know if they mentioned any prisoners.”

  Wait. “If Lilith lives, whose skull decorates your shelf?”

  “I don’t know,” he snapped. “Maybe hers, maybe not. Lucifer is a known liar, so I can’t be sure until I’m sure.” He popped his knuckles, no doubt imagining all the ways he could break his brother’s face. “Before coming here, I spoke with my children. Two are searching for the truth even now.”

  Two? She’d known he had a son, singular. She hadn’t known there were others. “How many kids do you have?”

  “Three boys. I had a daughter as well, but a Fae bitch removed her head.” Now his fingers curled around those dagger hilts. “The boys spy and kill for me, as I once spied and killed for Hades.”

  Astonishment knocked her back a few steps. “Do they have different mothers?”

  A faint pink tint spread over his cheeks, confusing her. William was embarrassed by the female(s)? But why? This was a man who had nude portraits of himself hanging throughout his home.

  “There’s no mother in the picture,” he muttered. “That’s all you need to know.”

  Had the woman abandoned the boys or died? So badly Sunny wanted to push for answers, and she would. Later. Right now, she grabbed her laptop and diary, then led William to the small table in the kitchen. “I kept detailed notes about every enemy I ever interrogated.”

  He pulled out a chair for her, but she shook her head and motioned for him to sit. He frowned, but he did it. Hoping to avoid his scent, she perched directly across from him. Nope. No better. Every time she inhaled, her hormones turned feral and she only wanted to jump him. Didn’t help that he was being so chivalrous to her.

  “I’ve nabbed three generals, over three hundred soldiers, eight of his best assassins and four of his mistresses,” she began as she typed, her fingers flying over the laptop’s keyboard. Once she found the correct files, she slid the laptop William’s way. “Here’s everything they admitted.”

  As he scrolled through the pages at a clipped pace, his nails lengthened into ebony claws, and a vein bulged in his forehead.

  Voice rough with irritation, he snapped, “No mention of Lilith.” He slammed his fist into the table, the wood cracking.

  She canted her head to the side. “Why did you and Lucifer break up?”

  He ran his tongue over his pearly whites. “To answer that question, you need backstory.”

  “Perfect. I love a good backstory.”

  He puffed a breath. “We met the day he helped Hades rescue me from...a hellish realm. I was lonely, traumatized and desperate. Lucifer was older, stronger and, for a while, kind. But every day I heard new rumors about secret black-magic rituals, rapes and animal sacrifices.” Bitterness dripped from every word. “Still, I chose to believe his claims of innocence.”

  Why the pause after “rescue me from”? What had he planned to say originally? And how had he been traumatized? What horrors had little William been forced to endure?

  Sympathy welled. “Go on.”

  “Later, he attempted to sacrifice me—while I slept. It was a betrayal I could not forgive.”

  “I’m sorry, William. You must have been devastated.”

  He pulled at his collar, clearly uncomfortable, and returned the conversation to the interrogations. “In your notes, you mention an artifact Lucifer wanted. A medallion. Do you know what it does?”

  Oh, yes. No way she’d spill the best and worst of the details, though. Instead, she’d stick with the basics. Things Lucifer and his crew had known. “It’s round and flat, about the size of a half-dollar, and roughly two inches thick. It’s a weapon.” It required effort, but she stopped herself from reaching up to stroke the medallion hidden under her shirt. It wasn’t the one Lucifer had hunted, but it was similar. Of course, she owned the other one, too. Anything the bluebell had wanted, she’d acquired. “A spear grows from the center.”

  “There must be more to it than that.” William reached for the book, intending to read her handwritten notes, but she jerked it out of range, pretending she didn’t want him seeing her lists.

  “You’re right. It isn’t a normal spear. The shallowest incision can paralyze your opponent for several seconds, giving you just enough time to remove their head.” Among other things. “Details about the spear are not in my diary.”

  “Only your lists.”

  “Exactly. So, you understand why the book is off-limits to you, I’m sure.”

  His interest was palpable, and she shivered.

  Lids going heavy and sinking to half-mast, he asked, “What have you written about me?”

  The perfect response rolled from her tongue. “Absolutely nothing.” Truth! In the list of sexual positions she hoped to try, she’d mentioned his friends, but never William himself.

  “Nothing?” he roared, glaring at the diary as if he imagined burning it.

  “That’s right.” When she closed the book with a flick of her wrist, he growled. Growled! Do not laugh. Dismissing the diary, she said, “If you want to return the favor and tell me everything you know about Lucifer, I wouldn’t be opposed.”

  Though he continued to glare at the book, he told her, “He’s a shape-shifter able to morph into anyone he’s seen in person or photos. In fact, we should use a code word from now on, to prove our identities to each other.”

  “No need. I see auras, so I can pick a shape-shifter out of a crowd of thousands.”

  “What happens if Lucifer acquires a person’s aura when he shifts?”

  Good point. It wasn’t impossible. “You’re right. We need a code word. How about Your penis is cute!”

  For a long while, William peered at her, silent. Then he hooked his foot underneath her chair and dragged her closer. “Since you cannot lie, it’s safe to assume you do, in fact, think my penis is cute.”

  Again, she caught a whiff of his delicious scent. The heat his body radiated...the startling intensity of his gaze... New shivers rocked her. Stronger shivers.

  He seemed to be waiting for her to say something else. When she remained quiet, too busy praying he would lean over and kiss her, he added, “Do you know where the medallion is?”

  “I do.” Tell him. No doubt he’d want the weapon for himself. Who wouldn’t? Would he demand she give it to him? Probably. Then, she could resist him, no problem. “I kind of...own it.”

  He stopped brea
thing. “I want it.” Excitement flushed his skin. “Name your price.”

  What! No demands? He’d rather bargain?

  Oh, she was tempted. Over the centuries, she’d found six medallions. She wore one, and had hidden the others. That way, she had backups, just in case. For the right incentive, she might, maybe, possibly part with one.

  “I’ll give you anything,” he rushed to add. “Within reason.”

  Can’t believe I’m about to do this. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Inhale, exhale. “I’ll give you the medallion if you release the other codebreakers.”

  He thought for a moment, then nodded stiffly. “Done.”

  “And me. Set me free, William.” She would stick around to break the curse and get that escort to Lucifer’s door, willingly rather than forced.

  “No!” he roared.

  With that one word, shouted so loudly, her temper threatened to redline.

  “I’ll release the others,” he offered at a more reasonable volume, “but not you.”

  Forget his earlier compliment. He’d earned another torment. “Then you will release them and move into the stable with me. You’ll put your clothes in the closet, your toiletries in the bathroom and your body in the bed. Every. Single. Night. Think Real Househusbands of the Underworld.”

  A tinge of panic infiltrated his expression, but he quickly wiped his features clean of emotion. He even schooled his body language. “Why do you want this?”

  “Maybe I hope to steal your sperm while you’re sleeping, artificially incriminate myself and use a baby to trap you into a long-term relationship. Who’s to say? Unless... You’re rich, right? I’d like my baby daddy to be rich.”

  He stared at her as if she’d sprouted horns. “I am rich, yes,” he finally said, still masking his emotions. “Is that the only reason you’d want me to father your child?”

  “Well, you’re hot, too. The most handsome contender.”

  “Who are the other contenders?” A vein pulsed in his forehead. “They. Will. Die.”