“Eternal guardian, now and always.” He spoke the words in the demon language and then Greek, a tongue she knew well. She felt it, the commingling of the box with her cells, slipping into her flesh, the power of Pandora’s Box vibrating on her tongue, tasting dark and destructive. Breathing ceased to exist; she went rigid and every muscle tensed as spasms jerked through her system. White exploded against her vision, blinding her. Overwhelming sensations ripped through her. Agony with such intensity she lurched backward, hitting the floor. She screamed as she bashed her head against the hardwood. The anguish ceased, leaving her limbs tingling. She gasped in a breath as pleasure launched through her, wrenching orgasm after orgasm from her quivering flesh.
Madison rolled onto her side and curled into ball when the mind-numbing climaxes ceased. Whimpering defeat, as wicked and vile sensations whipped through her, many she couldn’t identify. Suggestive sins whispered through her mind like dark seeds from the lips of a fallen angel, bent on her soul’s destruction. Those whispers would be difficult to contain.
Micah chuckled when the acclimation sputtered to a halt. He knelt beside her, flicked hair off her face and taunted, “One hell of a ride, huh, Madison?”
With the foundation of her world altered, she tentatively opened her eyes and beheld the room. Her fingers tingled like they crackled with energy. Her clit and vagina throbbed from too much pleasure. An unspeakable, dark weight pressed in on her.
“Let’s see you remove Pandora’s Box as easily as you removed my vow to eternally love you.” He growled, sounding more fearsome than a dog gone psycho with rabies.
Heart racing, breathing erratic, she dragged her attention to Micah. An angry, black aura tipped in burning coal, reddish-orange color encircled him.
Love? A dark laugh jerked her, starting a series of violent twitches. Helpless to stop the rabid attack, she moaned and whimpered, humiliated by the weakness forced upon her.
“You don’t love me. You don’t know what love is,” she said in the barest whisper. Their eyes met. “You abandoned us. And this…this…forcing a foreign object into my body against my will isn’t love.”
“I don’t expect you to understand now, Madison. In time you will comprehend the choices I’ve made, and how lucky you are.”
Lucky? Ha! If being damned meant being lucky, she possessed luck in spades.
“Madison? Madison? You okay?” Nix sounded worried.
She bypassed worry and went straight to fucked.
Behind Micah, a green aura tipped in gold surrounded Nix, where he remained trapped against the wall.
No, definitely not okay. Would probably never be okay again.
“I thought Pandora’s Box was empty.” I also thought it a myth.
Micah rimmed her lips with a finger. “No. It is the home of inconceivable monsters. You’re the guardian now.”
He lifted her hand and showed it to her. The skull and crossbones on the lid of the tiny box were now raised beneath her flesh. He turned her hand over, exposing her palm. On the underside of her ring finger, the word ‘Guardian’ tagged her flesh like a tattoo.
“Pandora’s power is at your control. You can open and close the box at will. It’ll protect you from everything.” He brushed her cheek with his knuckles.
“Everything except you?”
“And the other three Kings.” She heard Nix suck in a shocked gasp, the sound whistling through his teeth at the confirmation of Georgie’s prophecy. “I can’t have my Queen in danger. Of course, every time you open it, a new evil is released onto the world. Feel free to open it liberally.” He grinned.
“And Amos? Will it protect him?”
“Nothing is powerful enough to harm him. Not even a King.”
How could the notion be possible? If she believed him, Amos was half-demon, the other half pure human DNA. Nothing special there, compared to the supernatural. Again, how could she believe Amos held such power?
“Come, give your husband a welcoming kiss?” His fingers curled around her neck and drew her up from the floor.
Behind him, Nix still fought his restraints. Stubborn man wouldn’t give up. His face a red fury from his efforts. He’d hurt himself if he continued.
“Get away from her,” Nix gasped between grunts.
Pandora’s Box fused with her body or not, she pushed Micah back and rose on trembling feet. He steadied her with a hand to her shoulder and drew her closer for his welcoming kiss. His lips touched hers, soft at first, then turned aggressive, heat blasting her like a bonfire. Madison didn’t think her plan through, just drove the knife clenched in her right hand straight into his heart.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Micah jerked back. Surprise widened his eyes as they went demonic in less time than it took to catch a breath.
“I fucking hate you,” she said, letting the anger in Pandora’s Box amp up her own strength. She twisted the blade, felt a rib crack, and shoved with all her might, driving it to the hilt for maximum serration. She’d carve out his heart with glee, given the opportunity.
Even with her son watching from the bed, she would happily gut him. He went down, or they would.
His lips tightened, his forehead creased, and his eyes glazed with fiery retribution. He backhanded her hard enough to send her stumbling back, landing on her bottom with a hard thud and sliding another two feet from the force. Unfazed by the silver blade buried in his chest, straight over his vile heart, he sawed it in and out. He tossed her an evil grin before tugging it free, tar-like blood oozing from the wound.
“Just for you, kitten.” Twisting only his torso, he tossed the blade at Nix’s head.
Realizing his intent, she screamed, “No!” Her entire body shook with fear Nix would suffer harm. Amos squealed; she couldn’t figure out if it was a sound of glee or fright.
Using his quick reflexes, at the very last second, Nix jerked his head to the side and the blade thwacked the wall not half an inch from where his left eye had been. Wide-eyed at the close call, Nix exhaled a breath of relief.
Micah stepped toward Madison and slammed into an invisible wall. He tried at least three times to gain freedom before throwing back his head and roaring, rattling the home’s foundation. Madison saw retribution echoed in the eerie depths of his fiery gaze.
Whipping around to face Nix, Micah’s voice sounded neutral, belying his obvious fury, “She wouldn’t know what to do. What’ve you done, Sherlock?” The last word he spit out like a vile taste entered his mouth.
“Angel Lock.” Nix sneered.
Did he have a death wish, taunting a demon in a situation like this?
Earlier, Nix had approached Madison to report Georgie said they dealt with a King, and an Angel Lock would trap a King. Following his instructions, she’d used a black Sharpie to mark the design he suggested on the floor at the foot of her bed: a triangle nestled inside a circle, and an ankh within the triangle. All tips of the triangle touched the circle, with odd squiggles interlaced between each point. Nix had believed it unlikely they dealt with a King, however, being prepared never hurt anyone. The design marring her hardwood lay hidden beneath the rug.
Trapped by a Sherlock. How galling it must be for a King of Hell.
“This won’t hold me long, Phoenix, and when I break it, I’m going to suck the marrow from your goddamn bones.” He looked at Amos. “Help me, son. I’ll give you the power to break the seal.”
Obediently, Amos climbed out of the bed and pattered toward his father. Madison scrambled to her feet and caught her son about the shoulders before he reached the trap.
“Amos, no! He’ll kill us all.”
“Daddy,” he mumbled as an answer, refusing to look her way; his worshipful gaze remained on his father.
“No.” She shook her head. “He looks like Daddy, but he’s not.”
Micah knelt in the Angel Lock, appearing identical to the man she married. The ghastly likelihood existed they were the same man.
“Mommy’s confused, I am your daddy. You
know I am.” He held out his palm, and a blast of power sent her tumbling.
As soon as she stopped rolling, she scrambled to her feet. Dizzy, she stumbled and almost fell. Probably the side effects of the damn Pandora’s Box he’d jammed into her nervous system. Ignoring the muscle twitches that made her legs rubbery, she stumbled up to Nix. Their eyes met as she wrapped both hands around the hilt of the knife beside his head.
“Don’t,” he cautioned. “He’ll kill you.”
“He will anyway.” She tugged the knife free and searched for the bottle of holy water Nix dropped when he’d been thrown and anchored to the wall. She picked up the flask and shook it to assess the contents. Not much remained. She prayed there would be enough, and hoped the fluid would have more of an effect than it had earlier.
“Wish me luck,” she whispered to Nix and faced father and son. Horror froze her to the spot as Micah sliced a finger to the bone with a creepy claw extended from his other hand and held it aloft. Half-in and half-out of the Angel Lock, Amos leaned in and accepted the bleeding digit, suckling it like the baby she once nursed at her breasts. He slurped, and she vomited at the back of her mouth.
“Holy Mother….” Nix whispered the profanity, his shock apparent.
Snapping her spine straight, she squared her shoulders and yanked the Rhombus necklace off her neck. She approached Micah and Amos with caution.
“Good, son, drink your fill. Ah…your latent power is unleashed; I can feel it.”
Madison could see it too, in squiggly black lines emanating from Amos’s otherwise rainbow hued aura.
Micah cooed to Amos, sick things, like he was a good boy making his daddy proud. Soon Amos would join him and they’d set the world on fire. Promised him he could have anything he wanted once his power surfaced. And, of course, his daddy would show him how to utilize his supernatural talent. She wanted to kill Micah all the more for it.
Madison stepped right up to him and Micah’s head tilted back to smirk at her, his lips parted. She dropped the amulet into his mouth and poured the holy water in behind it. As she applied a gentle shove to Amos, she thrust the heel of her palm to the underside of Micah’s chin. Amos fell backward away from his father, while Micah gagged on the foreign object she’d dropped down his throat. With a quick slash of her arm, she brought the blade down across his neck, slicing his throat open, black blood spurting everywhere, like a bad horror flick. Any other time, she’d have blanched and turned away.
“I wish I’d known you were into such kinky foreplay, kitten.” His raspy voice gave evidence she’d sliced deep, straight into the vocal chords. He spit the Rhombus necklace out, and it chinked against the hardwood. “Good to know you’re not as pristine as you once were.” He rose to his feet. “Scratch a line through the Lock, son.”
Madison got her hand on Amos’s shirt, nevertheless, he slipped away easily, and used a fingernail to scratch a line through the Angel Lock as his father commanded.
Micah grinned. “Freedom.” He curled a finger at her, and she took a step backward. “Time to deal with my errant wife.”
Madison bolted too late. He gripped her hair and snatched her into his arms, and she collided into his rock-hard chest. Clawing his face with her nails, she went for his groin with her knee. He expected the attack and twisted just enough that she missed her soft target. His fingers wrapped around her wrist, squeezing until she dropped the blade. He wrenched her arm behind her and up until she winced. He held up his free hand and waggled his fingers at her, drawing her attention to them. A solitary demon claw extended, curled, blood red, thick and pointed, razor sharp. He dragged his claw across her shoulder, opening her flesh.
“Tit for tat.” He smashed his mouth down on hers, his hold wrapping around her neck.
Disgust rose to the back of her throat and her stomach shifted. The newly submerged Box pulsed with unhealthy lust. Madison kneed Micah in the balls, using all her strength. An inhuman howl ripped from him, shattering the mirror and cracking the windowpanes.
“Nothing more than a man there.” She shoved out of his arms and snatched the blade off the floor.
Between gasps, he muttered with a smile, “Maybe you’ve got more of your momma’s blood than I thought.”
What did that imply?
“Good,” she slurred, hoping she thrust the depth of her hatred into her voice. She stabbed him again and again, twisting the blade each time for good measure. She took aim, raised her arm, planning to hack the fucking head off his shoulders. Surely beheading him would kill the motherfucker.
Micah caught her wrist on the slash down. He jerked her forward and she crashed against his body. Hard to believe she once thought she loved him, found him attractive or suited as her son’s father.
“I didn’t mean you held the fight of your momma in you.”
She quirked her head to the side, waiting to hear what evil he would spew.
“Your mother wasn’t human, gorgeous. She and I were partners. We made a hellish pact, signed in demonic blood. A covenant.” A heartbeat lapsed, her head buzzed, her ears rang, and Pandora’s Box thrummed a seductive tune up her arm. “Succubus. Pure, unadulterated, soul-eating, succubus. And she had your Christian-nut father eating out of her pussy.”
Air fled her lungs in a shocked gasp. “Liar!” She wrenched her hand from his grasp and slashed, slashed, slashed the razor sharp blade across his torso, opening deep wounds that seeped black blood.
Micah laughed. “All this foreplay’s got my dick hard.”
“I’ll cut it off.” An enraged calm settled over her. Inside her head, Pandora’s Box chanted. Kill, kill, kill. Fuckhim, fuckhim, fuckhim. Needmorepower, needmorepower, needmorepower.
Unable to think clearly with the chaotic chanting, she lifted the blade, pressed it hard against her neck, desperate enough to off herself. Something warm and liquid slid down her throat. Blood?
“Madison, no!” She thought she heard Nix scream. With the hypersonic frenzy of Pandora’s mantra, she couldn’t be certain.
Lust, lust, lust. Want, want, want. Kill, kill, kill. Need, need, need. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Momma!” Amos’s cry filtered weakly through the psychotic lyrics.
She heard Micah clearly. “None of the messy stuff, kitten.” He pried the knife from her fingers.
Envious, she watched him roll it across his knuckles. “I want to learn to do that.”
“And I’ll teach you. Amos, go find me Phoenix’s cell phone.” His gaze centered over her shoulder on Nix behind her and a victorious smile hit his face. “I want to hunt down his Sherlock buddies and—” He slashed his thumb across his throat.
Nix went crazy, grunting and groaning, cursing Micah and promising to kill him.
To Micah’s chuckles, Amos obediently walked out of the room, his bare feet pattering against the floor.
Her husband wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him once again. “I’ll coach you in everything, kitten. First, I want you to listen to Pandora’s whispers—fuck me here, renewing our vows to one another in the primal act of lust. We’ll rule the world together, King and Queen and Prince.” Instead of kissing her, he licked the blood off her neck from her suicide attempt. “Succubus blood, like candy to a demon’s senses.” He sucked harder, shoving his hands inside her panties, one over her ass, the other straight between her legs, reminding her she wore very little, only a tank top and underwear. Wasting no time on foreplay, he shoved his middle finger inside her, pinched her clit between his thumb and forefinger, while squeezing her ass.
How Madison found the willpower to break through the manic chant of Pandora’s Box—fuckme, fuckme, fuckme, please, pllllleeeaaassseee—she’d never know. Shoving her thumbs into his eyes, she kneed his groin, connecting with his hard cock, and dove for the blade.
“Bitch!” His roar of anger finished off the windowpanes, shattering them into a burst of glass. Flicking a finger in her direction—a damn good estimated guess because she’d gouged his eyes out—she
flew across the room from the shove of his power, smacked the back of her head against the dresser and went limp.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Shocked by the revelations, Nix processed them. Madison fought like a soldier. Any Sherlock would be proud of her determination. He gathered from their conversation that the demon duplicated her ex-husband’s appearance. Demon Ex put a whole new spin on the euphemism.
Braving her way through fear, she’d squared off against the demon. A demon who wanted them both, not just Amos. The proclamation spewed more questions than answers. Nix ached for Madison. He wished he could do more to help her. Chained against the wall like a defeated dog, he helped no one.
He needed to discuss with Georgie the things he’d learned. Pandora’s Box pressed into Madison’s skin with flames of demonic mojo. That was some fucked-up shit.
The unfairness of life made him want to punch something. Everyone deserved a nice safe existence, and he’d never wanted to give it to someone as much as he did Madison.
After witnessing the gruesome reality of Micah feeding Amos his blood, Nix now understood why the child acted demonic, turning into a monster. The crimson fluid the only logical catalyst and it also explained why Amos asked to drink Madison’s blood the night the thunderstorm demon visited.
Nix might have cheered if she’d been victorious and sliced Micah’s head off, but the celebration wouldn’t have lasted long. A dead demon killed the human host. Not the demon. Killing one of the Four Kings of Hell—a fallen angel in other words—would only succeed in pissing him off, if it were even possible. But he knew next to nothing about demon Kings, so he dealt in only probabilities. As far as protectors went, he’d failed her miserably.
The ramifications of Madison’s parentage were tricky business. Truth or lie? Demons were notorious for lying, but if it were the truth, it explained why he wanted her with such desperation. It would also give Sherlocks a reason to hunt her. The odds of surviving the tracking of both a demon King and Sherlocks were slim.
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