bedeviled & beyond 02 - bedeviled & bedazzled

by Sam Cheever

  “I need your report.” Apparently he’d decided he wasn’t going to be able to make me feel better so he might as well get what he wanted from me.

  My jaw was beginning to hurt from being clenched. I glanced away, trying to relax my face into something less aggressive. I have a feeling the result was less than what I’d hoped. “My report is this. You’re spying on the wrong angel. My father is not your dark angel.” I turned back to him. “But I’m going to find out who is and when I do that evil creature will pay dearly for his antics.”

  Enoch stared at me with no change in expression. “What antics?”

  Well. I certainly hadn’t expected that question. But I decided I might as well tell him what I’d seen and why I knew it had been false.

  “You wanted my report, well this is my report. I went to my father’s house and skulked around like a third-class thief and I did see someone who looked a lot like my father plotting to kill King Dialle with an evil bitch who looked a lot like my mother and then I ran away like a coward thinking my father had fallen hard. But you know what? It wasn’t my father and now I’m going to find out who it was.”

  Enoch’s dark, handsome face looked perplexed. “What do you mean you saw your father but it wasn’t your father. If it looked just like your father it had to be your father.”

  I shook my head and stood up. Adrenalin had done what caffeine hadn’t quite managed.

  I was back.

  Getting into his space, I wagged an unimpressively short finger in his face. “Just like it appeared I was the one to kill a target demon the other day even though I was somewhere else at the time and had no knowledge of the event?”

  His frown deepened. “Astra, I think you need some rest. You’re not making any sense.”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “Of course I’m not! And do you know why? Because none of this makes any damned sense, that’s why!”

  I started toward the door, intending to leave. Unfortunately I caught movement out of the corner of my eye—his hand reaching for me—and I panicked. Before he could touch me and possibly shift me away I turned and jabbed his hand with a power jolt.

  He yanked the hand off my shoulder with a startled yelp. The room suddenly erupted in a violent wind that yanked pictures off the walls and blew pillows off the divan. Enoch’s wings unfolded and whipped violently around him. He’d grown a couple of feet.

  Oh-oh.

  I was dodging flying debris and trying to stay clear of those dangerously whipping wings and was seriously considering trying to shift out of the room when Enoch’s head jerked around to a spot beyond my right shoulder and then he disappeared with a pop.

  I was so surprised by his sudden disappearance that I almost didn’t notice Prince Dialle’s arrival.

  He grabbed me from behind and yanked me hard up against his long, lean body. My body immediately reacted as his hot mouth found my neck and he nibbled gently there. “Hello, lovely halfling.”

  My pulse was pounding...my adrenalin level sky high...and his affectionate attentions hit me harder even than they usually did. I gave brief consideration to dragging him to the ground and having my way with him. But, alas, my life was hell and I didn’t have time to play.

  I turned in his arms and placed both hands on his chest to hold him away. “Has your father returned to Court?”

  He grabbed my butt with both hands and pulled me against his rigid lower regions. I gasped as he ground himself into me. “To Hades with my father.”

  I laughed. “He’s been there, done that.”

  He grinned. “Yes but he needs a refresher I think. He’s really starting to get on my last nerve.”

  “Does that mean he’s back?”

  Dialle pulled my hair off my neck and ran a finger along my throat. My knees wobbled. I was pretty sure I could hear them banging together. “Stop that! I need to know.”

  He wrapped the length of my hair in his fist and yanked my head back, just on the edge of roughness. I gasped in shock and pleasure and his dark head lowered to my slightly parted lips. Just before his lips claimed mine he said, “No. He’s still imprisoned. My people couldn’t release him. I came to get you so you could help.”

  Then his lips claimed mine and we moved into the place without sound or movement, where the only clear sensation was touch and we stayed there a very long time, our lips melded beautifully together and my whole body tingling in fevered response.

  When I thought I might actually explode with lust, we finally emerged into reality again and Dialle pulled his lips reluctantly from mine. He leaned toward my ear, still holding my hair in his fist. “I am done waiting, Astra. When my father has been released you and I are going to consummate this lust. Or I will die.”

  I tried to shake my head but he tightened his hold on my hair. “Yes. We are.” Then he let go of my hair, grabbed my hand and turned away. “Come.”

  “Woof!”

  He snickered. “Good doggie.”

  I figured it wasn’t a good time to tell him I had to help my father before I could play, so I bit my lip and let myself be dragged along.

  See, I can be diplomatic if I need to. Sometimes.

  King Dialle the First was looking especially spry and yummy. Also exceedingly pissed off. He stood inside a clear box that wasn’t much larger than he was, with his lean, muscular arms crossed over his taut golden pecs, and glared at the collection of royals and guards standing helplessly outside his prison.

  As we approached he sneered. “What have you brought this insignificant little bitch for? Are you planning to screw her while I watch? It would be a fitting conclusion to this ridiculous turn of events.”

  Dialle stiffened beside me. “I warn you, Father, I won’t tolerate much more of your abuse. I’ll leave you to rot in this prison.”

  King Dialle’s response was to throw a jolt of power in his son’s direction. But unfortunately for him the power jolt was simply absorbed into the prison walls and the prison compressed noticeably until it barely cleared his elbows.

  Dialle grinned. “If you don’t learn to control your temper, old man you will soon be smashed between those walls like a twitterfly on display.”

  The king’s response was to curl his royal lip.

  I tugged my hand from Dialle’s and walked over to the prison. Placing my hands on it I felt along its walls with my power for a weak spot. There were none. The prison appeared to be flawless and impenetrable.

  Dialle joined me, studiously ignoring the glaring countenance of his father just inches from us. “Do you think you can open it?”

  I sent out a testing wave of power and smoothed it over the entire surface of the prison, walking around the clear cube to encompass the entire thing. “This is amazing.”

  Dialle came around to join me on the other side. “What?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this. This prison is built from exactly equal parts dark and light magic. And both sides of power are uncommonly powerful. The only way it can be removed is to reapply the same magic, at the same power levels, in the exact same amounts as when it was built.”

  Dialle frowned, “So what are you telling me?”

  I smiled at the nearly purple devil in the glass cage. “I’m telling you that your father is most likely going to know soon what a twitterfly feels like.”

  Dialle saw his father gearing up for another tantrum and said, “Old man, unless you have a desire to be squashed, you’d better hold your temper.”

  I turned to Dialle and said, “Remember when I told you I’d get even when the time was right?”

  He grinned. “I do recall that yes.”

  I smiled my most evil smile and turned back to the king. Leaning close to the cage I motioned him closer with a finger.

  Curiosity and the realization that I might hold his fate in my very small hands got the best of him and he complied with obvious reluctance. I whispered in his ear, using my power as a shield to ensure that no one else could hear what I said.

  The re
action was immediate. He turned deep red and tried to grab me through the prison walls but his hands smacked painfully against the unyielding surface. He screamed his rage, causing everyone in the room except Dialle and me to step back and look worried. Then he raised his hands to zap me and realized he couldn’t and he screamed again.

  I gave him a little finger wave and turned to walk out.

  Dialle followed me out. “I think we’d better leave him in there for a while until he cools off.”

  I nodded, “You don’t have a choice anyway. You need an angel and my mother to release him.”

  He grabbed my arm. “Your parents put him in that prison?”

  I shook my head, feeling lighter than I had in days. I now had proof that my father hadn’t been involved in imprisoning the king. “Nope. My mother and another angel, an extremely powerful one. I recognized her magic signature but not my father’s. But the light magic is too powerful to be anything but an angel of the highest throne.”

  He thought about my observations for a minute and then glanced back to his father, who’d been reduced to pounding on the clear walls with his fists, since using his power would shrink the cage even more.

  Dialle chuckled meanly. “Gerch told me the cage had been fairly large when they put him in it.”

  I tsked smugly. “I think your father needs anger management.”

  Dialle laughed, bringing on a new spate of screaming and pounding from the royal twitterfly in the clear glass cage. Then he grabbed my hand. “Let’s go. I have plans for you.”

  I opened my mouth to argue and found myself locked that way, looking into Dialle’s grinning face and feeling like an idiot.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Finally!

  Our prince did take our lady fair, to a place beneath the ground,

  To frolic in a magic bed, inside a fairy mound.

  We landed in the middle of a strange bed and he leapt on top of me before I could say, “Bob’s your uncle.” I had a brief and peripheral impression of rock walls and a lack of natural light. Somewhere in the distance water was running.

  Any protest I might have made was completely lost when he lowered his soft lips to mine and nibbled my bottom lip before pressing the seam of my lips open with his hot tongue for a full scale invasion. I halfheartedly shoved at his shoulders but he grabbed my hands and held them pinned to the bed as I wriggled beneath his hard—and I mean hard—body.

  He sucked on my tongue, growling with need. The sound vibrated through me, leaving me tingly in all the right places.

  Despite my best efforts at remaining aloof, my traitorous body leaped right into the fray, heating and throbbing in response to his touch. My knees opened under gentle pressure from his leg and a hard, warm hand skimmed my inner thigh, leaving a trail of heat wherever it touched.

  Coherent thought fled me.

  Dialle reached the silky barrier of my panties and ripped them effortlessly away.

  I gasped as the material left my body and arced through the air away from the bed.

  “Caveman.” I murmured as his lips left mine and started a heated trail down my throat.

  “Ugh,” he responded. His lips hit the soft material of my sweater and he tucked his fingers into the stretchy neckline.

  “Don’t you dare!” I gasped out before he could rip that too.

  He gave me a devilish grin and waved the hand over my sweater, making it disappear. The beautiful bra that matched my unfortunate panties followed them quickly, in a tattered arc through the air.

  I sighed. “You owe me underclothing.”

  Dialle didn’t respond. His mouth gently encompassed my left nipple and I was gone. My legs went numb, my heart picked up the rhythm of the pulsing between my thighs and all I could do was hang on to Dialle and enjoy the ride.

  I ran my hands through his silky black hair and pressed his head closer to my breast, nearly crying out with delight. My brain went into meltdown and my body took over. Any remaining whisper of doubt was savagely beaten back into my subconscious by my raging slut-monkey side, which had come out to play and wasn’t leaving the sandbox until it had been thoroughly ravaged.

  Dialle swung one long leg over me and I reached down to grab his thigh. My hands slipped over warm, smooth skin and lean muscle and I suddenly realized he was totally buffers.

  My touch made him growl and he ground himself into my leg, which was warmly sandwiched between his.

  Suddenly I envied my thigh. It was a very lucky thigh.

  I tried to roll and bring my other leg over his hip but my skirt got in the way and I cursed in frustration.

  Without looking up from his nibbling assault on my breasts Dialle waved a hand over the skirt and it was gone.

  We were flesh to flesh from head to toe.

  I thought I would die from pleasure.

  I grabbed his hair and pulled him up so our lips could meet again.

  He happily complied, his mouth slanting over mine with a pure, unfettered lust. I groaned as his body covered me and he positioned himself so that his hard, throbbing length was nestled in my happy place.

  As our lips fed from each other, our bodies fought to find the rhythm we’d been searching for since first clapping eyes on each other.

  I reached down and grabbed his hard, round buttocks and tried to push him into me, crying out when he resisted.

  The heat between us built until I was pretty sure we were literally scorching the sheets. In fact I smelled them burning beneath my body and thought I saw the occasional wisp of smoke wafting up around us.

  Like starving people, we drove our lips together, ruthlessly sucking each other’s essence and melding our bodies together so tightly I wasn’t sure we’d ever be able to separate again.

  He reached a hand between us and something hot and hard nudged against my entrance. I groaned and reached down too. I fought to get hold of him, totally out of control and frantic at the thought that he might stop. That something would interrupt us again. That we were being spelled.

  Whoa! Cold water.

  Remembering my dream my eyes flew open and I tried to clamp my legs closed again. “Wait, Dialle, are you sure it’s just us in this room?”

  He looked at me through lust glazed eyes and I had a second of horror that he was not quite himself but then he grinned and slid the first inch of his rock hard shaft inside my body.

  My head slammed back to the pillow and I screamed in pure, unadulterated joy and lust as he slid completely in.

  It was like nothing I’d ever known.

  I felt every inch of his flesh with every inch of my skin. It was as if he had a drug on his skin that heightened the awareness of everything he touched. He slid into me so slowly I thought I would lose my mind before he reached the end and when he did, he slid back out so slowly I thought I’d die before he came back.

  Then he dropped down to his elbows and lowered his lips to mine, stopping just before we touched. His hair fell around us like a silky, black curtain. Closing off the rest of the world and creating a magic place where we could hide while he made soft and exquisite love to me.

  His breath tangled with my breath and we tasted the simple heat that came from our age-old dance of pleasure.

  Each firm, lazy twist of his hips made my nipples peak and tingle, sensation tugging the randy nubs into a standing ovation. Every thrust massaged the tiny bud that was the seat of my pleasure and kneaded the hungry skin inside my body.

  The gentle massage built slowly to a delicious sensual assault. My toes curled as he plunged and withdrew, only to thrust again with growing vigor. Dialle rose up on his knees and lifted my legs so that he could penetrate more deeply, allowing him to brush against my clitoris with every stroke. He played the randy bud like a maestro. A heartbeat later I was screaming his name to the sky in glorious release.

  Dialle dropped my legs and pulled out of me.

  I cried out and grabbed for him.

  I needn’t have worried, he wasn’t done.

 
Flipping me over he grabbed my hips and lifted me into position. With a hungry growl, he plunged deep and took the dance to a new rhythm, which was frantic and savage and had me reaching for release again within seconds.

  He twisted his long fingers into my hair, pulling me into the curve of his body as he continued to drive into me. I reached around and grabbed his pumping ass and held on, making sure he didn’t leave me until he completed the job.

  Dialle released my hair and lowered his head to kiss my shoulder, his teeth quickly replacing his lips as he claimed me like a wild tiger claims its mate. Holding me in place with his strong, white teeth, he plundered my body with reckless passion.

  I nudged against the thin restraint holding me from release, my muscles tightening with expectation. As Dialle’s tempo built so did my urgency. But my body held back as if it were waiting for something.

  Then he placed his mouth over the daemon hickey he’d given me and my world exploded.

  I clutched the damp cotton beneath me as I screamed, the sexual cocoon we’d woven around ourselves exploding into conflagration. I came untethered from the real world, my body weightless and sizzling with pleasure. It should have been disconcerting...that feeling of floating away...but it somehow felt right and good. Warmth caressed my back as Dialle bent over me, his lips pulling gently on my hickey as his body built the dance into a wild thing.

  Every nerve ending in my body was alive. My senses flared on the impossible overload of sensation and I went over again, taking Dialle with me. He growled my name into my ear and slammed into me one last time, groaning with his release.

  We collapsed together onto the bed, panting.

  A moment later, Dialle wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into the curve of his body, now soft and warm.

  I sighed, feeling like I could drift into a deep and easy sleep.

  But my mind kept tugging at me that I had things I needed to do. Always things I needed to do. No rest at all for a weary but extremely sated halfling.