Hell's Phoenix

by Gracen Miller

His voice softened. “There is no me and Alessa.”

  “There should be.”

  “There is no you and Madison either.” Micah walked straight to them and snatched her out of Nix’s grasp, snapping her head back. “She’s mine. Always and forever mine.”

  Nix went toe-to-toe with Micah. “She’ll never be yours.”

  “Madison, tell him.”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  The earthquake rattled Zen. The cataclysmic event indicated colossal power out of control. Forced with the reality he couldn’t remain neutral any longer, he turned to Amos, who digested the devastating news with everyone else. Initial reports indicated hundreds of thousands were suspected dead.

  Zen sensed every soul that departed earth and major catastrophes set him on edge.

  As if the child sensed his intentions and was uneasy with them, Amos shifted in his seat. Fear crackled in the boy’s eyes and his bottom lip trembled. Amos launched off the sofa and tackled Zen in a hug, but only because he allowed the boy the privilege. Madison wanted him to protect her son if she didn’t survive, but Amos would hate him forever if he crushed her soul.

  “Give her time!” His grip tightened around Zen’s waist. “Please, Zen, just give her another hour. Don’t kill my momma. Not M-M-Momma.”

  Zen touched his head, his heart breaking. These two were his adopted family, and he’d been without family for too many years. His humanity had been lost to solitude. He didn’t wish to lose them. But he couldn’t allow the world to suffer because of something he wanted or unexpected emotions plaguing him.

  Amos’s tears seeped into his shirt. Zen pushed him away and teleported.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  “I’m Micah Dominus’s wife.” She withdrew from Micah’s grasp, noting his smug expression, and she feared Nix would make a go for him with his fists or magic. She gave Nix a slight push and he stepped backward, creating enough room she could move between the men. “Nothing but death will alter that fact.”

  Nix snorted. “You cannot believe that.”

  “It’s the truth, Nix.”

  “Give me your mortal eyes and say that.”

  Madison powered down her Lynx. She knew the moment her mortality surfaced because all magical imprint faded from the room. “I’m Micah’s wife until death.”

  “Then I’ll fight him for you,” Nix snapped out between clenched teeth.

  Micah chuckled and Hell rocked around them. She whipped around to catch Micah’s gloating smile. But too late she realized Nix and Alessa wouldn’t be getting out of Hell so quickly.

  Everything darkened like flipping a dimmer switch, then blackened completely. The floor shifted and Madison fell back against Micah. He steadied her with hands to her shoulders. The mini-earthquake settled them into darkness except for the red tinge of fire that glowed to the right. She called forth Lynx and the power amped up her vision in their dark, cavernous locale.

  Not more than four feet away a cliff abruptly dropped. The fiery imprint heralded from the pit below.

  The Hellhounds whined at her feet. Directly in front of her, Nix pushed to his feet with Alessa beside him.

  “Everyone okay?” Nix asked and winced. Blood trickled from a cut along his forehead. He’d live. That was what mattered for the moment.

  “A choice must be made, kitten,” Micah said, from behind her. “I’ll grant Alessa or Phoenix freedom, but not both.”

  Nix stomped to them and placed himself between her and Micah. Adorable really that a Sherlock wished to protect her—a Queen of Hell—while in Hell. What a novel idea. How ironic that he held no sway here, but she possessed it in spades. How was that for Sherlock subterfuge? His demon-killing buddies wouldn’t tolerate the play of this scenario. But that was part of what made Nix so appealing, his heroic ways in the face of impossible adversity.

  “I own Alessa’s soul. You cannot harm her.” She stepped around Nix. “You allowed me to take Nix’s covenant. That renders him off-limits as well. They’re both going back to earth.”

  “Make the choice, kitten, or I’ll make it for you.”

  As an answer, Madison glared at him. He shrugged and a shadow emerged from the darkness. It captured Alessa and stepped farther into the light with its victim. Two long, pointy fangs extended. A vampire.

  The leech’s eyes were white without a touch of pupil to negate the lack of color. The creature’s long, greasy hair hung limp and rank. Dirty, cracked nails sullied Alessa’s clean, pale skin.

  “That’s Derrick,” Nix said from beside her. “He’ll do whatever Micah wants.”

  “Yes.” Micah twitched a sardonic grin at them. “But what happens to Alessa is Madison’s decision, not mine.”

  “Send her home now,” Nix said.

  “She’s mine!” Madison screamed at Micah, furious he dared to harm what she owned. Her succubus shrieked with outrage.

  Micah offered her an over-exaggerated pout, and she wanted to rip his heart out and feed it to one of her Hellhounds. Gloating wasn’t attractive. “You going to sulk over me not playing fair, kitten? Really? When you’ve lied and betrayed me from one moment to the next?”

  “All you’ve ever done is lie, while I simply twisted my words to suit my needs. It’s not my fault you took them however you wanted. Betrayal should be something you’re comfortable with since you forsook your father.”

  Micah pointed at the vampire and Alessa whimpered as if on cue.

  Nix caught Madison’s arm, holding her back from going to Alessa and taking the vampire down as he buried his fangs deep in her shoulder.

  “Take Nix and get out of here,” Alessa whispered, pain in her voice and lancing her features.

  No way would she leave a friend down to save herself. Not while she maintained her mortality. She’d come for Nix, but she wouldn’t leave Alessa behind, either.

  “Wow,” Micah snarked. “Alessandra is courageous. She’d spend eternity here to save you and Phoenix. Like this, unbroken Phoenix would do anything for you both also. I’d say brave, but they’re really rather stupid. Alessandra especially so. No one can protect her in the vampire’s arms. Do you know what they can and will do to her for an eternity? I assure you it’s a much worse Hell than what I could offer her.”

  “Release her, Micah.”

  His brows flashed upward and he mocked her with a grin. “No.”

  She scanned his physique. Every woman’s fantasy, rock-hard body, gorgeous face, clear blue eyes, and blond hair, he used to charm the pants off heterosexual males. “Why do you hide beneath a façade of humanity when we both know you don’t have a smidgen of humanity, Beliel?”

  “This what you prefer?” He shifted into angel. Blue skin shimmered as his wings rose over his shoulders and shuddered as if they emerged from water. “Even channeling your Lynx, your humanity has proven stronger than I anticipated.”

  “Thank you.” Madison stepped toward him and brushed off Nix’s halting hand.

  “It wasn’t a compliment.”

  A foot from Micah, she drew to a halt. She could push him over the edge of the cliff at his back, but she didn’t think that would buy her much, if any, time. “Let’s lay our cards out for the final time. What do you want?”

  “You know what I want.”

  “I never planned to leave Hell.” A shocked gasp came from Nix.

  “Don’t do this, Mads.” Alessa’s plea ended in a strangled cry. Madison guessed the vampire bit her again. She curled her fingers into hard fists. She’d kill that motherfucker first chance she got.

  “Madison, Elias dragged you into Hell. How could you plan to stay here?” Micah crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Elias arrived an hour too early. I was headed into Hell that morning.”

  Understanding dawned on his face. “You were coming for Phoenix.”

  She inclined her head.

  “And you expect me to believe you planned to remain in Hell?”

  “I swear on Amos’s life.”

  Micah nodded.
He believed her. Swearing on the Bible wouldn’t have gotten her the same reaction.

  “I know the way you think, so I’m confident you had some kind of backup plan.”

  “None. Our deal is the same. Release them, Micah.”

  Sadistic. That’s the only way she could describe his grin. “The terms of our deal have altered. You were dishonest with me.”

  “How many years were you dishonest with me?”

  “All for your own good.”

  “Right back at you.”

  His features hardened. “New deal,” he snarled. “I get every soul you own because I doubt the tadpole here”—he notched a thumb toward Alessa— “is the only friend you’ve got working with you on this smash-and-grab mission.”

  “Believe as you wish, but she’s the only friend in Hell with me.”

  Micah ignored her and continued to speak his new terms. “I want a dozen more children…all with Amos’s abilities. If it takes three dozen to get children with those qualities, I won’t complain.”

  “I can’t have any more children and you know that!” After complications with her second miscarriage, even the doctor had said she would be unable to have more children.

  Micah grinned. “So green. You haven’t changed at all in the fifteen years since our relationship began.”

  What the fuck did that mean? How many more godheads did he need? Not just that, but how horrid of an idea, spending an eternity birthing children with him. And…wait!

  “What do you mean even if it takes three dozen to get these qualities? How…” She sucked in a ragged breath, dreading the answer, but needing to know. “How would you know if they had the same qualities?”

  “The same way I knew before your other two miscarriages.”

  Gasping at the implications, she stared at him. Hell tilted into a whole new level of hell. “Did you cause those two miscarriages?”

  “No. I thought about it, but they canceled themselves out before I could act upon it. I wanted those children regardless of their imperfections.”

  Her breath stuttered out of her lungs. Unsure if she should believe him, she suspected he spoke true. Maybe that made her the biggest fool ever born. “Fuck you and your deal.”

  “She’s yours,” Micah said to the vampire.

  “No!” Nix yelled.

  Madison whipped around in time to see the vampire sink his inch-long fangs into Alessa’s neck. Her eyes rounded and a strangled gasp fell from her parted lips. Blood oozed around the twin wounds, but most of the liquid went into the vampire, his eyes turning blood red.

  Nix bolted to help Alessa, but he didn’t get far before being pinned down by a swarm of vampires, and positioned for optimal viewing.

  Hang on, Alessa, she projected mental encouragement, as she turned to face Micah.

  Left with no other choice, Madison visualized the tattoo on her back, threw her hands into the air and yelled, “El hta xukrlajj htaka ej qevth, u xiik qiyrax, lif jpujtax imal, uj e yippulx ul ukpc hi pc wevth!” In the darkness there is light, a door locked, now smashed open, as I command an army to my fight!

  Air whooshed around them, hot, arid and strangely frigid. Micah’s features went slack at whatever boomed from beneath. “What have you done?” He peered over the edge and bellowed, “That door should not have been opened! Not yet!”

  “That door is mine to command.” For someone about to guide a million demons she spoke with too much calm.

  The swooshing of wings flapping grew louder. Was she getting an army of demonized bats?

  Micah peered at her over his shoulder. The only time she’d ever seen fear on his face was when he believed Zen killed her in the hotel room after dragging Nix to Hell. That same kind of fear clouded his visage now.

  “This isn’t over, kitten.”

  She never suspected it would be.

  Micah stepped through a magical portal and disappeared seconds before a host of dragons appeared over the ridge.

  Nix’s dragons have come to save him, Usha said silkily in her head.

  Leaving Alessa unconscious, the vampires fled like roaches when light suddenly penetrated a darkened room. From the corner of her eye, Nix scrambled to his former lover and lifted her against his frame. He cradled her, ran his hand over her hair, and kissed her forehead, proof he loved and adored her, and that they were meant to be together. To make that happen, Alessa must survive.

  “Heal her, Nix.”

  “I can’t in Hell.” Nix sniffled as if he cried, but with the angle of his head she couldn’t tell. “She’s breathing, but barely.”

  He brushed hair out of Alessa’s face. No doubt he saw the things she recognized, the limpness of her limbs and her glassy eyes. None of it boded well.

  Before she could focus on saving Alessa or Nix, she had to address the dragons.

  Smoke billowed from nostrils so wide two large men could fit in each and still have wallowing room. Wings beat in long slow flaps strong enough to crush a mortal that ventured too close, and created gusts of wind that whipped her hair around her head like Medusa’s snakes. The bellies of the dragons were black, with hell-fire colored scales across their backs, much like the image of the tattoo on her lower back. They moved like a serpent and a bird. Limber flight. An odd combination, but she bet most effective when outmaneuvering one’s enemies.

  The demons she’d known and killed were frolicking walks in the park compared to these things.

  The dragon at the lead perched his bird-like claws on the ridge and folded his wings along his back. A human shape formed, a male with shoulder length black hair and black eyes, his skin a deep bronze color. His powerful frame reminded her of the suppressed steel Zen hid beneath his unimposing stature. Dressed in black leather pants and a black, long-sleeved button-up shirt, Madison admired his physique.

  Another appeared beside him, built much like Zen, with a slender, athletic frame, and long powerful legs. Shaggy coffee-colored hair offset by eyes the spectacular shade of molasses, framed by ridiculously long, eyelashes, the tips dipped in gold. Honey-tinted skin gave him a sweet and velvety soft complexion. Dressed much the same way as the darker dragon, power leeched from him in an illegal combination of innocence, danger, and sexual appeal.

  “I am Kur,” the black-haired dragon spoke in a deeply hypnotic tone. “Leader of the dragons.”

  “Madison,” she said, unaffected by the mesmerizing lull of his voice that probably worked as either an aphrodisiac or a weapon, effective and dangerous in both scenarios.

  “This is Cael.” He motioned to the molasses-eyed dragon.

  Madison glanced at the dragon Kur indicated and Cael went to his knees before her.

  “Stand. I do not require that nonsense.”

  Cael rose to his feet.

  “The immortal must trust you to have given you our calling card.” Kur cocked his head to the side. A flash of something indeterminate glittered in his dark gaze.

  “By ‘the immortal’, do you mean Zen?”

  “He goes by no name, and I’ve not heard of this Zen.” He offered her a blade, it winked black and fiery. Madison peeped over his shoulder at the many dragons arrested mid-air. As far below as she could see, dragons extinguished the fiery light from below. But she noted the blade coalesced with the same colors as their scales.

  “Take it. Dragons are natural-born enemies of angels and I wish to pick Beliel’s bones clean. That makes us allies.” Did it? The only allies she had were those she trusted and trust was a fickle thing in her book. “The blade is made of dragon scales, mine specifically. If you can puncture Beliel’s heart with it, you will kill him. You should know his heart is located on the right instead of the left side of his chest.”

  Madison accepted the blade. Snug and comfortable in her palm, the worn grip of the handle vibrated with timeless energy, a slight buzz against her hand.

  She twisted the knife from side to side, studying the visible layers in an array of color. The razor-sharp edge was almost a clear glint. Not an exper
t in weaponry, she held an appreciation for fine-made hardware, and this one most likely had been crafted in the hottest pits of Hell. “It sings with age.”

  “Yes. Honed from a scale from my youth.” She met his dark gaze. “They’re sharper when we’re younger.”

  Did that make it indestructible? Or just supernatural like her? Either way, the Lynx inside her purred at the gift, cherished it as an extension of herself.

  Who could say they had their hands on a blade like this one? Owned something of such power?

  “It looks like Petra’s blade.”

  “Petralegija?” Kur waited for her to answer. She returned his scrutiny and offered no reply. “It’s similar to the one that bitch possesses.”

  What hadn’t Petra told her about the dragons?

  Kur reached over his shoulder, withdrew a dragon scale the size of a man’s back and offered it to her. “Nothing will penetrate it. A supernatural blacksmith can hone it into more weapons or indestructible supernatural amulets.”

  Without hesitation, she anchored the blade in the waistband of her jeans, took the scale, and walked to Nix. “Give me your back.”

  “Why?”

  “For once, please don’t argue with me. Just give me your back.”

  Cael came to them and took Alessa from Nix’s grasp. “Your friend needs help before she dies.”

  She nodded as Nix glared at the golden dragon. She threaded his belt through the buckle and Nix’s attention refocused on her. As her knuckles hit his belly, he squirmed.

  “Be still,” she demanded.

  “Your touch tickles.”

  She glanced up, but the smoldering look in his eyes said it didn’t tickle at all. Her fingers connected with the button of his jeans and he shoved her hands aside.

  “Damn it, Mads, I’m not six! I can do it myself.”

  “Then handle it and spin around.”

  He turned facing away and loosened the waistband of his jeans. “We should be protecting your back, Mads, not mine.”

  She yanked up his shirt and fell arrested for a moment by the muscled line of his body. The dragon tattoo blazed across his flesh and she glanced at Kur. Being saved by a dragon had been foretold. Nix had wanted a fair maiden to be involved. He’d gotten what he wanted in the form of Alessa.