The Fallen King: The Bellum Sisters 4 (paranormal erotic romance)

by Grey, T. A.

  “I like your chest.”

  Oh my god! her mind screamed. What the hell did I just say? A hot blush crept over her cheeks. “I mean…” her eyes followed a droplet of water sitting in the hollow shell at his collarbone. He moved a little and the drop went running down his chest and over one hard, defined pectoral muscle. Between her legs, she grew tight and hot.

  Alrik eyed her warily then pulled his wet shirt on over his head. The shirt clung to him in ways that fascinated her. It fit along his arms like a second skin, showing to perfection his cut biceps. What a shame, though, to cover such beauty.

  “Perhaps you are tired. Did you eat?”

  “No, no I didn’t.” She’d been too lost in her thoughts.

  He shook his head at her and grabbed the food off the ground, shoving it in her hand. “You’ll eat as we walk. We have to get moving while it’s still light out.”

  “Why is your shirt wet?” She couldn’t help but ask. The wet shirt clinging to him bugged her. He’d come back without it on, yet it was wet. As his dark eyes narrowed on her, she knew she must be steadily making a fool out of herself.

  He grabbed his supplies and sheathed his swords over his back. “I washed it.”

  “Oh.” Of course he did. The idea of him soaping his own clothes in a cold lake made her smile. He cut a look to her catching it.

  “What?” He sounded defensive.

  Her lips twitched. “I didn’t know you could do laundry. Bet you miss your slaves for that.”

  His gaze dimmed and she knew she’d said something he didn’t like. “Slaves didn’t do my laundry but servants did. Let’s move.”

  Abby couldn’t hide her frown. She’d meant it as a joke but obviously she’d messed up and insulted him. Great, just what she needed. She didn’t know whether to apologize or let it be so she chose the latter.

  On their hike through the dense forest, Abby took in her surroundings and nibbled at her cold dried meat. The meat reminded her of beef jerky, one of her favorite snack foods. The futhorc meat wasn’t quite that tasty though. It had a chewy texture and it was cold which made it hard to bite into and even harder to swallow. She swore if she ever got back to her normal life she’d appreciate life so much more, even little things like beef jerky.

  “What’s up with the bushes?” she asked.

  He grunted. “What of them?”

  She nodded at a yellow bush. “You said not to go near them. Why?”

  He shrugged, jostling the swords on his back. She liked walking a few paces behind him because he walked so much faster than she did which gave her the opportunity to take time to admire his body without him knowing it. It was sneaky but worth it. The man had a backside just begging to be nibbled.

  He sounded frustrated at having to answer her. “Gringum the plant with the bright yellow leaves is contagious. One touch will leave you with a rash that brings fever and rupturing boils. Gargum the dark yellow bush causes hallucinations if inhaled, and gumrosh, the red bush, is most lethal of all. If eaten, you’ll die from its poison.”

  Abby’s eyes widened as she eyed the plants and mentally thanked Alrik for walking them far around them. “So how far until we reach this rogue camp you were talking about?” They had to be closer. They’d reached the lake last night, and he said it they only had some miles left to go from there.

  “I’m not sure. I don’t know if they’re still there. They could have moved on long ago.”

  “And what is it you hope to get from them if you do find them?” She felt it more then saw it—the tension radiating from him.

  “Supplies,” he said shortly.

  His odd response didn’t go unnoticed but she didn’t know what to make of it. The man could get tense from the smallest things. Who knew what went on in that mind of his.

  “The things I would do for a bar of soap and a change of clothes,” she sighed.

  Angry dark eyes cut to hers immediately stamping out her little daydream of getting a sweet smelling bar of soap. “You need only what I get you and nothing else.”

  O-kay. Well, it’s gonna be a long day, Abby decided. Mr. Tight-Lipped wasn’t being any fun at all. She had the urge to grab his face and plant a big fat kiss on him just to see what he’d do.

  The day trudged on and still they walked. The forest grew denser so that some trees stood only a foot apart from one another and they had to squeeze in between the trunks. After some time, they walked out of the dense forest and into an area where trees grew further and further apart.

  The light had just started fading from the sky. Unlike on the earthen-side when the sun went down some light still lingered from the moon, here in the rift, it stayed quite dark. Not completely dark, some hazy pinkish glow still shone from somewhere far in the distance, but it was hardly enough to see where you were walking. Abby hated walking at night.

  They walked on until they stepped out of the forest and came into an open vista. They stopped so he could examine the area, and she took the opportunity to catch her breath.

  The land looked to go on forever. Yet, unlike on the earthen-realm where light poles and electrical lines staked across the country alongside houses, developments and cities filling in the every inch of land, this was on open unused piece of earth that flowed up and down in rolling hills and rocky crevices. Towards the right a steep hill rose, almost as tall as a mountain but not quite.

  “We’ve made it,” he said.

  Abby frowned. “This is it? Where are the rogue demons then?” She stepped up beside him so she could read his expression. She’d expected a camp or houses or anything. He didn’t look happy. A frown marred his lips, and his eyes were tense with thought.

  “They must have moved.”

  For some reason she wanted to comfort him. She shouldn’t. Her future with him wasn’t exactly certain. However, certain things couldn’t be denied. She couldn’t deny that he had the ability to make her heart race or for her breath to catch. She also couldn’t deny that she wanted to know everything about him and how he came to be cursed.

  Something was happening between them. Maybe it started with that kiss or maybe it started before that, she couldn’t be sure. They spent so much time together that it was all beginning to blur. Still, once she got powerful enough, she was porting her butt out of here and leaving him in the wind. If he came back after her, she’d be powerful enough to keep him away. Of that, she felt certain. He already said his mother was more powerful than he was and only Abby would be able to kill her, which technically made her more powerful than him too. Just, not yet. She was getting there though. Her powers were growing, becoming easier to reach and use.

  “What are we—?”

  “Krishnoe!”

  He held his hand up at her, stopping her mid-sentence.

  A new wave of tension poured over him and she stilled too. She didn’t know what he just said but she got the gist of it. Even without thinking about it, her body tensed, breathing turning quiet as her eyes scanned the distance. Something was very wrong.

  Alrik silently lifted his hands and grabbed the handles of his swords. With only a soft hiss of metal on the leather casing, he lifted the swords over his head and freed them.

  They had no warning when it came. It all happened at once.

  The sound of dozens of feet pounding the earth sent Alrik and her spinning around. From the forest, she spotted a small army of idummi demons sprinting for them. Abby backed up behind Alrik without realizing she’d done so.

  “These aren’t the demons you were talking about, right?” She tried to insert some humor into the situation because right now, she had to fight the urge not to run in the other direction. He couldn’t possibly win against so many demons. Before there had only been one and he’d taken care of it quickly. But now there had to be at least twenty headed right towards them.

  “No they are not. Stay back!”

  That was all he said before he let out a roar that threatened to deafen her and charged into the forest. Abby pressed a fist to
her mouth, teeth biting down. The man was a warrior.

  He caught up to the first demon heading the pack and slew him to a bloody mess in seconds, but there were too many. The demons narrowed in on him, their line formation closing in, circling him. They jumped at him at once, their heinous cries and squeals piercing her ears.

  But, something else caught her attention. That eerie feeling of being watched. Abby froze and slowly looked left. There, three demons had broken off from their friends and slowly came towards her, their knees bent, arms dangling low with sharp curved knives at their belts.

  Abby didn’t think—she acted. In a blast of magic, she shot the demons back. They flew into the trees, barreling into them with a hard whack. She didn’t stay to see what happened with them—she ran.

  She never ran as hard in her life as she did in that moment. She didn’t know how she knew that the idummi would get up and come right after her, but she did. They were going to kill her. An ear-splitting war cry followed right behind her. She flinched knowing that sound was directed at her and what she’d done.

  Pounding feet sounded behind her. Abby strained to make her body move faster. She just had to go faster, that’s all.

  Her lungs worked hard to suck in air through the panic. Any strain on her limbs didn’t register as she was in panic mode. She raced flat-out across the plain, swiftly stomping down patches of grass and flowers in her wake. She headed for one of the hills towards the left. Some thought that she could hide there came to mind and she charged forward with her only goal to escape.

  The pounding feet closed in on her. The creatures made clicking, gnashing sounds with their teeth. She pushed her last reserves of energy hoping it’d be enough, but a hard body slammed into her. Abby cried out as she went flying hard to the ground, the momentum of her speed banging her head into the ground and making her ribs kiss her spine.

  She groaned, unable to move. The thing that tackled her growled and grumbled in a hissing deep voice. It spoke garbled, strange sounding words at her. She was flipped, not gently, onto her back and another painful groan escaped. She had to move. She had to fight back and get away, but her body had given up.

  The fall had knocked the wind out of her and sharp pains made each breath she took a chore. Her right knee throbbed with a fiery, burning sensation from the landing. Her bruised sides pulsated in anger at the treatment.

  Her eyes flashed open as an idummi climbed over her, one leg on each side of her waist. Its teeth gnashed together in a chomping motion making yellow spittle drop from its mouth. The spittle hung from its thin green lip for a long second. Then it fell from his mouth. The spittle landed on her shirt and started to sizzle, a tendril of grey smoke swirled up. It burned straight through the shirt leaving a black hole. Then it touched her skin. Abby cried out as burning pain engulfed her. She scrambled and wiped with her shirt at the spittle until the pain ebbed.

  Breathing hard, she stared up at the demon. It had a nasty sort of smile on its face that only served to bear sharp, pointed teeth.

  Only straight meat eaters had such teeth. That thought popped into her head at that exact moment, and it scared the shit out of her. She wasn’t going to become a meal for this thing.

  Sucking in a deep breath, she thrust her leg up in a brutal kick catching the demon between its legs. The demon’s hands flew between his legs as its knees buckled. Before it collapsed over her, she scrambled backwards. Now that she wasn’t running, her body started sending warning signals to her brain to let her know her body hurt in a bad way from that fall.

  The demon screeched and its yellow, strange red-inflamed eyes narrowed on her. She had a moment to gulp before it launched itself at her landing on top of her. All the air whooshed out of her at its weight. The thing was shorter than she was and bony, yet had a layer of hard muscle over it. It seriously weighed a hell of a lot more than she’d expected. It felt as if a grown, fat man was sitting on her.

  The demon’s eyes widened with glee and a black, forked tongue slithered across its lips. It pulled its curved dagger from its belt, pressed its knees into her chest to lock down her squirming body, and lifted the dagger above its head with two hands.

  “Kraju d’menuni kash!” it hissed. Then it jerked its arms further back an inch and lurched down with the blade.

  Abby screamed and shut her eyes waiting for the knife to plunge into her body. A whizz of air stirred her hair making her flinch. She panted, waiting for the blow, but the demon groaned above her and fell to the side. Abby jerked up, scrambling away.

  “Huh,” she grunted.

  An arrow was stuck in the demon’s chest where its heart should be. Dark murky blood oozed around the wound. Black feathers were stuck in the end of the arrow. It looked handmade and very real. The demon didn’t move any more.

  Abby started to shake. She couldn’t help it. She’d been in several scary situations in her life, especially since meeting Alrik, but this one took the cake. She stood up and her knee gave out. She could already feel it swelling from when she landed, but she locked it and gritted through the pain so she could turn around.

  What she saw she could barely comprehend. A group of demons, not idummi, but tall, human-looking demons like Alrik surrounded her. They had various colored skin and hair just like Alrik too. They carried an array of swords, knives, axes, and one in the front held a black bow. He seemed to stand taller than the rest, though that may just be the command that surrounded his presence. He strode towards her. His lips were moving and garbled sounds came out, but she didn’t understand any of them. She recognized the sounds of Demonish being spoken between the men.

  His gaze traced up and down her then he glanced back and commanded something to his group. The others vanished in a flash of movement. Then he spoke once more.

  Her thighs started trembling, and she flexed her thigh to try to keep her leg from giving out. Hot fire started burning in her muscle. It jerked and she grimaced as her muscle rolled and her knee burned tight. It felt a good two sizes bigger than it should be.

  The strange man with the bow said something else to her, his eyes intense. Too bad she didn’t speak Demonish.

  With a curse, her knee gave out and she couldn’t keep from crying out. She landed on her side, her hands going to her upper thigh to apply pressure there. It helped to ease the pain some but not by much.

  The demon came towards her. He had skin like the pale moon and hair as black as Alrik’s. His eyes were what really caught her attention though, they were green. No, that was too plain sounding. It didn’t do them justice. They were the most beautiful green eyes she’d ever seen. Like the green in a photo of a tree in Hawaii that’d been colored and highlighted by some designer’s hand to enhance it. It was brighter than the brightest grass or leaf even down here in the rift where colors were more vibrant. And, they were on a face that stared down at her with such intensity that it stole her breath away.

  The demon stopped before her with his hand held out and whispering foreign words. She felt his magic travel over her body an instant before darkness took her.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What are you going to do with the woman?”

  That same question had been plaguing Aidan since he caught her. He and his men didn’t know what to make of her. She wasn’t demon, nor vampire or shapeshifter, yet she traveled with none other than King Alrik Demuzi. That left them with human.

  Just what the king wanted of them, they didn’t know. If the king thought he could garner any kind of support from Aiden and his men then he couldn’t wait to show him just how wrong he was. Few were hated more than the king of the shahoulin—a treacherous, evil bastard that deserved no less than a slow, painful death. Aidan just hoped some good might come out of this chance meeting.

  His eyes once again fell to the unconscious woman. She was beautiful, captivating. Then again, he hadn’t laid eyes on a woman in a very long time so maybe his sense of what was attractive or not was tainted. Maybe she actually looked more like a hag. His e
yes wouldn’t let him believe it. She looked young, fresh, had a mane of shiny brown hair, and a body perfect for loving.

  “That’s a good question, Conrad, and one I don’t have the answer to right now.”

  Conrad nodded and his gaze, just like the rest of the men’s, fell to the woman. Aidan had ordered her to be laid upon some bedding near the fireplace until she woke. Her demon companion didn’t have it so nicely. A smile tugged at Aidan’s lips.

  “How fares the king?” Aidan asked.

  Conrad grinned with pleasure. “He’s below in the dungeon bellowing his brains out to be freed. I don’t think he much takes to captivity.”

  Aidan ground his jaw. “Now he has a taste of what he’d bestowed upon us.”

  “And it feels good,” Conrad said.

  Aidan laughed, his chest feeling lighter. “Yes, yes it does.”

  Conrad fell silent for a moment, and then hesitantly said, “You don’t plan to let her go, do you?”

  He could almost hear the twinge of hope in his fellow soldier’s voice. “No, certainly not.” He and his men had been without a woman for a very, very long time. He wouldn’t let his fortune idly walk away now. The question then was what to do with her. There was only one of her and twenty-one of them. The men might share for a while but it wouldn’t take long for possessiveness to flare. That, Aidan could do without. The last thing he needed amongst his men was rivalry over a single female. It’d be inevitable if he didn’t plan this carefully. “I’m thinking a challenge.”

  Conrad’s grin faltered then transformed into a wide smile. “Excellent idea.”

  Aidan nodded. “There will still be some problems. Whomever doesn’t win will feel it surely. This will create tension among us.” Especially since Aidan planned to keep her for himself. He wanted to be the first to feel the naked skin of a woman pressed against him, the first to slide hard between her welcoming thighs. His cock hardened at the thought.