Immortal Fire

by Desconhecido(a)

  “He wants to torment me. Besides that, I’m terrified of him. Have you seen how huge he is?” She pointed down, indicating Brenton’s cock. Kai bit her lip to keep from chuckling again. If Mitzi had noticed, maybe she was more attracted than she liked to admit to herself.

  Kai led her to a bench, and they sat down. The warmth of the sun was invigorating. Kai hated autumn and winter, for obvious reasons. Mitzi shifted and leaped onto Kai’s lap. Kai scratched her behind the ears. “I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I mean, I just believed Donovan when he said Ove wants to use me, to open me up for attack so he can force me into the underworld. And then I go haring off to be trained to beat Ove at his game. What if it’s all untrue?”

  Mitzi mewled.

  “Yeah, he did call off Bevin. Or someone could have . . .” She gasped and sat forward. “You don’t think someone banished Bevin, do you? No.” She sat back. “If that were true, Ove would have known that too and sent a new guard. I hate this. I don’t want to kill him. I want . . .”

  “You want your cake, and you want to eat it too.”

  Kai glanced up in surprise. Her father, the great Ove himself, stood before her. “Ove!” He scowled. “Father, what are you doing here? You never leave the underworld.”

  “The incompetent jackasses that I instructed to bring you to me did not. So I had to do it myself.” He flicked a finger in her direction. “Let’s go, Kai.”

  “Excuse me?” She stood. Mitzi leaped to the ground, shifted into her human form and blocked Ove’s access to Kai. The snarl on her friend’s face let Kai know all Ove had to do was threaten Kai, and Mitzi would attack. Kai tried moving her aside. She was no match for the demon lord. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I want no part of it.”

  The man whose loins she had come from glared at her, baring his sharp teeth. Fire ignited even his hair. She and Mitzi took a step back, almost falling onto to the bench behind them. Kai had trouble remembering her training.

  “It’s simple, Kai.” Ove sneered. “You will live in the underworld, in my house and under my direct protection or you will be killed.”

  “What!” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He couldn’t mean what she thought. She was confusing the issue.

  Gethin stepped out from behind Ove. Before Kai could react to his presence, he uttered a few words in a language she had never heard. The next thing she knew he had reached into her chest, through her flesh to her heart. The pain was excruciating.

  Somewhere in the distance, she heard Mitzi’s scream and then her roar. Darkness surrounded Kai, and the stench of sulphur filled her nostrils. Just like that, after weeks of training that had meant zip, Gethin had taken her life with her father standing there letting it happen. And if she knew anything about Ove, she knew he was thorough. He would destroy her body so she could never regenerate in the way that she had.

  In her heart, she cried out for Donovan.

  * * * *

  “You have to do something, Donovan!” Mitzi screamed for the millionth time, making his head ache. The girl had no respect for her elders or the leader of her family. Her whole world seemed to wrap around Kai. He had often wondered, watching her with Kai, if she was in love with the woman.

  “And what do you suggest, Mitzi?” he spat. “That I stand against a demon lord? The deal was that I bring Kai to the underworld and our whole family would get out from under demon rule. Now we’re stuck in this damn world.” He spun away, pacing in the dungeon of a house he had grown up in. After crossing to the window, he twitched the curtain aside to look out at the sky, as it was. A great purplish expanse that went on and on. No sun, no stars, no real light. He missed the human world. “I have more than you breathing down my neck about this situation, Mitzi.”

  He heard the tears, but didn’t turn around to see her pitiful face. Not that he didn’t care. He did. For Mitzi and his family. But most of all, he ached for Kai. Damn it, why did I fall for her. Like any dumb sap he’d chided in the past, he felt almost like Kai was the air he breathed. Fuck!

  Mitzi would not give in. “I visit there, and Ove lets me only because Kai badgers him night and day. I can see how she’s been crying. Big nasty demons guard her around the clock. They don’t let her go anywhere.”

  Donovan attempted to convince himself that Mitzi’s words didn’t drive a knife into his chest.

  “She tried to use her powers on him . . .”

  He turned in shock. That news hadn’t reached him before now. “What? She did? What happened? Tell me!”

  Mitzi sighed. “I wasn’t there, but I ran into Bevin on the street. It was during the time I wasn’t allowed to visit this last week and a half. The message Ove passed through the demons was that Kai was not feeling well.” She frowned. “As if a demon gets sick in this place.” She scoffed. “The demons are the superior race here.”

  “I know, I know!” he snapped. “Tell me about Kai.”

  “Bevin said she apparently used everything she had learned from Brenton. It wasn’t enough. He cut her down. He . . .” Mitzi doubled over, clutching her stomach and swallowed a few times. “He hurt her. I begged to get into his mansion to care for her, but he wouldn’t let me. Please, Donovan, do something. You’re our and Kai’s only hope here in the underworld. And only Kai would be willing to lift the power that keeps all of us out of the human world.”

  He pressed a hand to the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. With his other hand he waved her away. “Leave me.”

  “But—”

  Without words or a move from him, the door opened, and Mitzi was swept from the room with a slam behind her. He didn’t turn around, knowing his mother had taken her place. Would the world always weigh on his shoulders? “Mother?”

  “Ove has commanded the portal through my shop be closed.” She sniffed. “I am no longer allowed to have it. Donovan, I serviced immortals of all kinds, even those who were legally in the human world. I managed the gateway to other worlds, and if I say so myself, I made a damn good potion or two that was useful to humans.”

  “I know you did, Mother.” He clasped his hands behind his back and didn’t move away from the window. At intervals, citizens not of his family strolled past, their eyes cast in his direction. Just who told them that he was the way to raise demon oppression, he didn’t know. “Ove’s punishing you, because of me.”

  “Maybe I should appeal to another lord?” she wondered aloud.

  “He is the most powerful,” Donovan informed her.

  “There’s always power struggles going on, and none of the lot of them are loyal. They are disgusting. I hate them.”

  “Yet you want me to go and rescue a half demon.” He glanced over his shoulder at his mother. Her hair was all over her head like she hadn’t combed it that morning, and unless he was mistaken, she had worn that same wrinkled outfit the day before. “You acted like you hated her as soon as you learned what she was. You were glad when Ove took her from me.”

  His mother’s hands slid to her hips. “You’ll note, son, that I came in here complaining about what Ove is doing to your people, not to that . . . that . . .”

  “Careful, Mother.”

  “Woman,” she finished. “It’s all tied together, and I guess since you’re grown, you won’t listen to me about having nothing to do with her. But you do owe it to your family as our leader to rescue us. We want out, or at least to have the opportunity to visit other worlds if we choose.”

  “Has no one considered the humans?” he pondered. “How would they feel to have the ‘hounds of hell’ let loose on them, so to speak?”

  She rolled her eyes, and he chuckled for the first time in weeks. None of them cared. The humans tended to be play things for his kind. Most enjoyed causing mischief, like bad dreams, accidents, and whatever other dark deed they could think up in the human world. Besides, there was enough goodness already in the human world, the creatures that kept the balance. He didn’t doubt more would be released
to keep things in order should his family be able to come and go. Besides all that, there was an endless amount of worlds to explore. His people would spread over them all.

  He came to a decision. “Mother, have someone find Bevin for me. I want to learn all there is to know about Ove’s mansion and those who guard it.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Why doesn’t he come?

  Kai had tormented herself with those words for weeks in this hell hole. She understood how much the people hated living in the underworld. There was not a peep of sunshine. It seemed perpetually dark, and the temperature was at one level—hot.

  Demons walked the streets in soldier uniforms, and every other creature bowed to them, practically scraping the ground in hopes that they wouldn’t be tormented. That hope meant nothing more often than not. This was a demon’s world, his play house, and she had seen first hand how they ruled with an iron fist.

  She sat up on the side of her bed, holding her right arm close to her body. Attacking Ove had been a mistake. All the others who thought she was the key to taking him down had made a huge miscalculation. She had believed it herself, but had felt the full force of his wickedness, his power. Now her arm was damaged, maybe permanently.

  “Call me, Donovan,” she willed with tears in her eyes. “Call me, please.”

  Who was she kidding? He wouldn’t. He had been using her, just like Gethin, just like Ove and just like Brenton. Her trainer had to know she would never amount to Ove’s level being a half bred demon. After the pitiful excuse for a fight she and her father had, which had been over in less than five minutes, she began to believe Brenton had only wanted to hurt her, to get back at Ove indirectly.

  “Poor calculation on his part if he thought Ove gives a shit about me,” she grumbled.

  With despair, she glanced down at the flat mudlike shoes on her feet. At least that’s what came to mind when she examined her hideous footware. She missed her spiky heels, her sexy clothes and bubble baths. The underworld was sorely lacking. No wonder everyone wanted to get out.

  She rose to her feet on unsteady legs and stumbled toward the door. Trying the knob she found it locked as expected. She’d been shut in here since the attack. Mitzi hadn’t been allowed to visit, and Kai would give anything to turn back time so this never happened. But how far back. Would she give up the limited amount of time she’d spent in Donovan’s arms?

  “Kai!”

  She spun around the empty room and fell to the floor. Her heart hammering, she prayed it wasn’t her imagination. “Donovan?”

  “Kai, come to me.”

  Tears splashed down her cheeks. She felt the pull, that wonderful jerk that would bring her to Donovan. Locating a tissue before she lost substance and traveled through the sturdy walls surrounding her, she nearly held her breath in anticipation of seeing him.

  With her cheeks and eyes scrubbed free of moisture, she bit her lip when the darkness turned to light. She was in what she assumed was his house, in his living room. He stood with his back to her, his broad shoulders not so wide as they had been the last time she’d seem him. He had lost weight. And his clothing was different, more somber—black slacks, shirt and shoes.

  Kai tried not to look so frail and ugly, as if that were possible. “Donovan, I’m here.”

  He turned slowly and then caught his breath. “No!” He rushed across the gap between them when the last time, he had made her come to him. When his arms wrapped around her, her knees gave out. He lifted her and carried her to the couch to pull her onto his lap. “He hurt you. He’ll die for that.”

  “You can’t want me now,” she whispered, feeling sorry for herself. “All my confidence is gone. I . . . I’m so ugly. My arm—”

  “No, you’re beautiful. And remember I love you.”

  She sobbed on his chest. “It all feels hopeless, Donovan. He’ll sense I’m not there and come after me. You haven’t seen the demons he guards me with. They’re huge, and just one of them is probably more powerful than I am. What made you think for a minute that I could defeat Ove? What made me stupid enough to believe it? He left me years ago without looking back. I think it takes that level of evil to be as strong as he is.”

  “You’re wrong.” He tilted her head up to look into his eyes. “You don’t have to be as evil as he is. You don’t have to be evil. You have humanity in you.”

  “No, he killed that. He destroyed my human body.”

  He shook his head. “What makes you you, Kai, is your soul, not your physical body. And the despair you feel is an illusion that demons use. Their imps actually carry out that order. Trust me, I had no idea until recently that I had a few, invisible, hanging off me, making me feel like I couldn’t rescue you, that anything I tried wouldn’t work. Look how I was able to call you to me.”

  She considered his words. Could it be true? She would be the first to admit that she knew little of this world and the way in which the demons ruled over all the other races. After all, many of them wielded powerful magic. Why wouldn’t they be able to overcome a demon who had only fire and simple magic to keep the inhabitants in this world?

  “It might be a trap,” she muttered, unable to accept that it was this easy for them to be together.

  He tugged her closer to his chest and ran his hand down over her hip. “I will take what I can get for as long as I can have it. I’ve missed you, Kai.” He lifted her chin and covered her mouth with his own. She softened against him, drawing heat from his tender kiss. A tingle started in her injured arm, and she pulled back, breaking the kiss.

  Donovan groaned. She felt him strain against his pants beneath her. Images of their coupling flashed in her mind. Kai wrapped her arms around his neck and then drew back again, her eyes widening.

  “What’s wrong?” Worry lined Donovan’s eyes. She noted how dark they were like he hadn’t been sleeping.

  “My arm.”

  He nodded. “I’m going to torture him for doing that—”

  “No, look at it. I couldn’t move it two inches from my side since it was hurt, but the pain is gone. It’s still red and burned, but I don’t feel pain.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Kai spun around on Donovan’s lap to face Brenton. “You? What do you have to do with anything?”

  Mitzi stepped out from behind him looking pale. Kai squealed, jumped off Donovan’s lap and ran for her friend. They clung to each other, crying.

  Brenton groaned. “Doesn’t it just turn you on seeing two sexy women together?”

  “Fuck you, Brenton,” Donovan growled. “What are you doing here? I blame you for leading us on, making us think you had the power to help Kai beat Ove. Because of you, she was hurt. I ought to kill you right where you stand.”

  Kai dragged Mitzi over to Donovan and stood in front of him. “No, you can’t fight him, Donovan.”

  He frowned. “I thought we realized the demon’s tricks, Kai. We’re not bowing to them anymore. And I downplayed my ability to use magic. I do a lot more than you’ve seen thus far. I can take him and be fine to kill Ove.”

  “Brave words, Donovan,” Brenton spat. “But wrong. You cannot defeat Ove by yourself. You and I remain to be seen, but I’m here to help you take him down. After that, our working together is at an end.”

  “And what gave you that change of heart,” Donovan grumbled. “Don’t tell me you’ve turned good, because a demon doesn’t have it in him. I can see just looking at you that your heart is black. What, do we have to sell our souls for your help?”

  “Oh I got a soul all right.” Brenton chuckled. “But not yours.”

  Kai had been listening to them argue, hope springing inside thinking Brenton would help. But when he said he had a soul, her best friend slipped from her arms as if pulled by magic. She slid backward across the floor to land against Brenton’s hard body. He curved an arm around her waist and molded his form along hers.

  In shocked disbelief, Kai stared when Mitzi lifted her chin for Brenton’s cruel and hot kiss. Mitzi
was pale, and Kai saw tears in her eyes. She lurched toward them, but Donovan held her back.

  “Let me go,” she screamed. “Mitzi doesn’t want him.”

  “I’m sorry, baby,” Donovan whispered in her ear. “But she’s made the choice to sell herself to him. She’s his slave now.”

  “No.” Kai cried. “Mitzi!”

  Her friend turned to look at Kai. “I would do anything to save you, Kai. I promised myself to Brenton in order to get him to help. I stole the book of spells from Donovan’s library to be able to call a demon to me. I called Brenton and made the deal. You said yourself you noticed how he was attracted to me.”

  And Mitzi had been attracted to him, but she was afraid of his size. From the look of her, she’d been right to fear. And Brenton didn’t have a heart. Mitzi was looking at an eternity of pain and unhappiness.