With that thought fresh in his mind, Kier walked out of the palace and transported away before the door swung closed behind him.
~~~~~
Muriel stared at herself in the mirror of her small bathroom attached to her dorm at basecamp. She looked for any visible sign of changes. Some proof that she was different. When she turned mortal, there had been signs, subtle but still noticeable.
Her skin had changed. The angelic glow was gone and even the best makeup products could not quite recreate it. Her hair had been harder to control. Instead of falling perfectly into place, she had to work to style it. It would frizz in the winter, and the warm Arkansas summers caused her to sweat too much to ever take it down from her standard ponytail.
Now that she could sprout fire from her fingertips, there were no noticeable changes. Was she mortal anymore? If she wasn’t mortal, what was she? Part angel and part demon? The entire idea was crazy. Demons were created by an angel so, by rank, she was above demons. Granted, the angel who created them was high on the power of corrupted souls. Those corrupted souls gave him the power to create his own army to collect even more souls, growing his power exponentially.
All the power in the world and underworld couldn’t save him from being struck down by his own creation. When she was an angel, it was easy to hate Lucifer. He turned his back on everything angels stood for, demanding to be treated as an equal with the mortals he watched over.
Now that she was mortal, she saw him in a different light. She even respected him. It was hard for angels to feel any emotion, and he had felt such pride in himself and jealousy of mortals that he turned his back on Heaven to rule the emptiness of the underworld.
Feeding off the power given off by damned souls, he had formed his own land with his own creatures to guard him. As the demons grew in numbers, along with Lucifer’s power, he became more and more corrupted until he was an even greater monster than any of the ones he had created.
Was she no better? Feeding off Kier like a vampire. Consuming his blood and powers at the same time. He didn’t exactly seem opposed to her using him. He even appeared to enjoy teaching her to use her fire at the hot spot earlier that day.
She knew her soul was turning darker and darker, but why didn’t this bother her? She hadn’t even considered that Kier could be playing her until Samuel said something. That wasn’t like her. She was used to being suspicious and strategizing the best way to approach a battle. She had never gone gaga over a boy, let alone a bad boy.
Even knowing everything she knew about demons, even knowing that Kier was the same demon who had forced his blood down her unwilling throat, she still doubted that he had ulterior motives. The way she was drawn to him was too intense to be one-sided. When he was in front of her, it was as though the world stopped turning. Nothing else mattered but his touch. His smile.
She shook her head. Foolish girl. Kier was just a part of her past. A part that had to be forgotten as soon as possible.
Her plan to forget Kier was immediately pushed aside as Muriel walked out of her bathroom to find him lying on her bed.
Her jaw dropped as she ran to him. “What are you doing here?” she whispered and shouted at the same time.
He looked like death. His jaw was bent at an unnatural angle while his shirt was saturated with blood. “Protect you,” he said in a pained tone.
Muriel’s brow furrowed in worry. “Why don’t you just hold off on the speaking part until your jaw fuses back to your skull, okay?”
Kier shook his head in refusal. “Have to…tell you…something.” His words were punctuated with long pauses of him trying to recuperate from the pain of speaking.
“Stupid demon,” she muttered. “You can tell me later, assuming Samuel doesn’t walk in here and kill you.”
“Azazel sent me—he sent me to protect your heart.”
Muriel raised a brow at his crazy claim. “Azazel sent you to protect me? I think you might have hit your head a bit hard. Why don’t I grab you some ice to put on your shoulder? You should be mostly healed by tomorrow but the cold will help with the pain.”
Demons and angels both healed quickly, but the muscles and flesh mending came with a burning sensation similar to scalding hot water being poured onto the wound. It was worth the pain to have a broken jaw healed in twenty-four hours, but it was no fun.
Kier’s good hand moved at lightning speed and wrapped around her wrist. Muriel jumped at the movement but didn’t move back. For a moment, she flashed back to when he first walked into Alexander’s Restaurant. He had grabbed her wrist exactly the same way then. She had been terrified and confounded by the touch. The memory was different now. Instead of seeing his eyes full of malice or hatred as he threatened to kill everyone in the restaurant if she didn’t serve him, all she saw was heat. As though he was looking for any excuse to touch her. As if he had wanted her from the moment he saw her—well, before she trapped him to her with the bespelled handcuffs. Was she imagining it?
“He doesn’t want the prophecy to come true. You can’t have a broken heart.” He closed his eyes and winced with the effort it took to speak in full sentences.
Muriel pulled herself out of her head. Obviously Kier was in a lot of pain and not thinking clearly.
“My heart is safe,” she reassured him. “You just sit tight and stay quiet. Anyone here with half a brain in their head will kill you on sight. Luckily for you, I’m brainless at the moment,” she said with a smile, though his eyes were still closed so she just had to assume he knew she was kidding.
Muriel pulled her silk robe over her pastel green tank top and pink shorts that she had planned to wear to bed. She slipped her feet into her boots. No one at the base owned slippers or flip-flops. They were instructed to be on guard at all times. There was no telling when they could come under attack or when they would need to run and fight.
Even though she had hellfire at her fingertips, Muriel still strapped her blade holster around her waist, which gave her quick access to twelve silver knives, all blessed with holy water. The fire was an effective weapon, but it required concentration to wield effectively. If engaging in hand-to-hand combat, blades were always the best option.
The silver had no adverse effect on the demons, but it would burn a vampire to the touch, and any injuries caused by silver would take longer to heal on a vampire. There were more and more vampires slipping into Earth and causing trouble, so all of Samuel’s men carried silver blades.
She peeked her head out the door to make sure the coast was clear before she softly shut the door. She tried to look natural while making as little noise as possible. She didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to herself.
She cursed her luck as she entered the kitchen. Samuel was eating a midnight snack with Ava. “How’s it going?” she asked them while she made her way to the freezer to grab some ice.
The electricity wasn’t working when they first came across the abandoned school, but after a little magic from Esmeralda, the place had lit up like a Christmas tree.
If you were going to be waging a supernatural war, you should at least be able to shower in hot water.
Ava’s face lifted when Muriel walked in the room. “Hey! I heard you kicked some demon ass tonight. Samuel said you were able to use your fire as a weapon?”
Samuel and Ava never referred to it as hellfire. They probably didn’t want to be reminded it was only wielded by beings from Hell. “Yep. Once I understood how it was supposed to feel, it wasn’t too hard to get it to behave how I wanted.” Once Kier taught her how to wield it. Oh and by the way, Kier happens to be lying in my bedroom right now and I’m kind of happy he’s there. Just letting you know!
Yeah, that conversation would go over great.
“That’s awesome,” said Ava.
“Even better was that she got another demon to confirm the reports of a mortal opening a gate to Hell,” said Samuel.
Muriel scooped some ice into a tall glass, to make it seem like it was for her an
d not an injured demon. “Just because a mortal entered Hell without lighting up doesn’t mean that I can. Mortals and angels are banned for different reasons.” She swiped a plastic baggie from the counter.
“But it’s a step closer,” said Samuel. “You have to see this as a win.”
Muriel sighed and met Samuel’s eyes. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up,” she warned.
Samuel slammed his glass of water down on the counter. “Damn it, Muriel! Getting your hopes up is a good thing! Why are you so determined to die? If we follow this lead, we can find you some way to get into Hell without destroying your soul and we will find some way to get you out of there without Azazel or his minions getting to you. Why can’t you just have some faith in us?”
Muriel pursed her lips. “That’s such a mortal thing to say,” she told him. “It’s easy to think you can change everything when you’ve only been around for thirty years. When you’ve existed for over a thousand and never known of any angel to get into Hell, let alone face Azazel or Lucifer, without dying, it’s much harder to believe that things can change.”
“If you go into a fight with Azazel expecting to die, you will,” said Samuel softly. “What is the point if you aren’t even going to try?”
Muriel was stunned speechless by his words. Had she truly given up? Was she just counting down the days until her death? “Um—I have to go,” she muttered as she grabbed her cup of ice and walked out of the kitchen.
“Muriel, wait!” Ava shouted, but Muriel didn’t want to face either of them right now. She wanted to be alone to sort out her thoughts.
But there was no alone. Kier was currently taking up what little space there was in the dorm room she currently called home.
She was able to make it back to her room without running into anyone else and quickly ducked inside. Kier was still on the bed, eyes closed and motionless. She delicately shut the door and tried to pour the ice into the baggie as quietly as possible.
“Where did you go?” he asked from the bed.
Apparently she wasn’t quiet enough. “I thought some ice would make you feel better,” she said.
The corners of his mouth curled into a smile. “I would kill for some ice.” Upon seeing her eyes widen, he hastily said, “Just a figure of speech. I probably wouldn’t actually kill for some ice.”
“Probably?” she asked with a crooked grin.
“No promises,” he said.
She slipped off her boots but kept her robe firmly tied around her waist. “Why don’t you move over?” She approached the bed.
“Are you going to nurse me back to health?”
“Well, you’ve proved you can’t take care of yourself.”
The bed was in the back corner of the room, with the head and side up against two of the dorm room’s walls. Across from the bed was a small desk and the door to Muriel’s private bathroom. Kier moved over close to the wall, and Muriel sat down next to him with her back up against the wall where a headboard would have gone.
She put the ice-filled bag up to the bloody spot on his shoulder. The edges of the wound had closed, but she knew the sting would still be fierce. Kier hissed at the sensation as he shifted to lean his head on her thigh. “You have no idea how good that feels.”
Muriel looked down at his beautiful face and her breath almost left her. His big girth almost took up the entire bed. His obsidian black hair seemed longer, curling just under his ears, and a stray lock fell in front of his eyes. She brushed the strands away as his eyes opened and looked up to her.
“Why do you seem so sad?” he asked. “Is it because I’m here?”
“No. Samuel said something to me when I went out to get some ice.”
Kier scowled at the mention of his nemesis. “I swear I’m going to kill him someday.”
“Don’t say that. Samuel is a true friend to me, and I don’t have many of those right now,” she said. “He reminded me that if a soldier goes into a fight expecting not to make it out alive, they probably won’t. He thinks I’m setting myself up for failure.”
“Aren’t you?” asked Kier. “Have you ever truly thought you would make it out of this alive?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t understand why I was chosen to take on Azazel. I don’t understand why Samuel is so important to stop the apocalypse. I don’t understand why I was made mortal when all I ever did was my job to the best of my abilities. I don’t know why you fed me your blood. I don’t know why you are here and I don’t know why I don’t hate you.”
“That is a lot,” he said. Muriel smiled at the truth of the simple statement. “Why don’t you focus on what you do know? What you want for yourself.”
Her one hand held the ice on his shoulder while the other still rested in his thick hair. “Wise words for a demon,” she said.
“We are good at being selfish. At taking what we want and damning the consequences. That is where you angels fall short. You spend your whole lives living for others and you spend eternity never doing anything for yourself.”
“At least we never end up wanting something we shouldn’t have.”
Kier met her eyes, letting her know full well that he knew that he was what she wanted. “What makes you think that I don’t want something that I shouldn’t?”
“I guess I just thought you were smarter.”
“Oh no. Trust me when I tell you that I’m a damn fool.”
“Color me convinced.” She smiled. Why did she smile so much around him? “You going to give me room to sleep?”
He moved another two inches until his side was pressed against the wall. Muriel had to lay on her side with her arm across his hard stomach to keep from falling off the bed, but she didn’t mind. It felt like the most natural position in the world.
“Kier?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s probably stupid, but I know what I want. I want you right where you are,” she whispered, burying her head in his shirt, too embarrassed to meet his eyes.
He pulled her closer to him, even though his shoulder was surely aching from the movement. “You had better go to sleep before I forget how much pain I’m in and show you exactly how happy I am to be here.”
“Promises, promises,” she muttered against his skin before she closed her eyes to sleep.
~~~~~
Muriel was awoken with a kiss. Not just any kiss, but a soul-searing, life-altering kiss. Kier was positioned on top of her, cradled between her thighs. One hand braced his weight while the other cupped the back of her head, holding her in place for his assault.
His tongue plunged into her mouth as his hips pressed his erection firmly into her core. She kissed him back with equal passion. Her hands cupped his face and snaked around to the hard muscles of his shoulders.
It was only when she touched bare skin that she realized that he was naked above her. She jerked her head back in surprise. His dark eyes looked black in the soft light that came from her slightly ajar bathroom door. His shoulder was completely healed and blood free. He must have washed himself off before coming to her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, even though it was obvious what he had planned.
Instead of answering, he bent his head down to the sensitive skin at the base of her shoulder and delicately licked a hot trail up her neck to the spot just below her ear, where he softly nipped at her. Liquid heat pooled at her core. “Tell me to stop and I will,” he whispered. His sultry breath rushed against her ear.
“You aren’t playing fair,” she moaned as she helplessly pushed up against his erection, knowing exactly where she wanted him.
He laughed his wicked laugh against her ear as he reached between their bodies. Without any warning or preparation, he pushed her shorts and panties to the side as two fingers easily slid into her. Her wet entrance offered him no resistance.
“Fuck,” he muttered as he moved his fingers within her. His forehead rested against her shoulder. “I have been dreaming about getting i
nside you for the past month. Trying to imagine how you would feel wrapped around my fingers and my cock, so tight but so wet. Just wanting more. Have you dreamed of me, angel?”
His thumb circled her clit and her hips jerked off the bed. “This is better than any dream I ever had.”
“All you angels are so unimaginative,” he whispered before he took her mouth for a quick and deep kiss. “The things I’m going to teach you would even make a demon blush.”
While he kissed her senseless, he removed his hand from her heat. She moaned at the loss and pushed her hips toward him, begging for more. “Please,” she breathed against his mouth between kisses.
His hands found the edges of her robe and he pushed the material off her shoulders. She sat up and helped him to strip her. She reached down to the hem of her tank top and started to pull it over her head; his hands joined hers. As the small piece of fabric fell to the ground, Kier took in her breasts. They heaved with her rapid breaths while the nipples were puckered and begging for his attention.
“Do you imagine me touching your breasts?”
Unable to speak, Muriel just nodded her head.
“With what?” He leaned closer to the flesh just waiting for his touch.
“I imagine you kissing them,” she murmured. “Kissing them as you—” She broke off, too embarrassed to continue.
Kier knelt toward her and playfully licked one puckered tip, teasing her with the possibility of how good his touch would feel. “As I what, Muriel?”
“As you enter me,” she whispered.
He growled against her as he closed his lips around her nipple and his hand gave her other breast equal attention.
Muriel threw her head back as she felt the sensations shoot straight from his breath to the spot between her thighs where she still tingled from his fingers. She tried to push her thighs together to relieve the pressure, but Kier’s big body blocked her.
Instead, she rubbed up against him, the feel of his hard length against her heat breathtaking. He groaned against her. “Fuck, Muriel. I was trying to make this last for you.”
Binding Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys of the Underworld Book 3) Page 16