Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set

by Multiple Authors

  “Did you have a lot of work to do? I’m not sure how long you’ve been gone.”

  “I had a meeting with the guards that will be going with us to meet the king. It’s an important meeting and I wanted to talk to them personally to tell them what I expect of them. It looks like Adame picked a good group. I knew he would, it’s just so important that everything work out right. This could mean so much for everyone. Can you imagine peace in our time?” His face was lit and his eyes blazed with feeling. It was clear he was passionate about many things.

  The thought of peace in their time was a giddy prospect. Life could return to being much as it had before Knorris took her. The thought of Knorris took some of the joy from her thoughts. He would never allow peace to rule and he had enough power that he might be able to prevent it. It was best not to get her hopes up after all.

  Chapter Three

  The Best Laid Plans

  Knorris felt like he was going insane. His sister, her husband, and those damnable children were suffocating him with their presence. What was worse was part of their reason for being there. No, they hadn’t shared it with him, but he had ways of extracting information with no one being the wiser. Some of the king’s servants were simple, to put it kindly. Of course he was brilliant and always had been so he could have overcome even the wisest servant.

  He almost considered rewriting his plan to kill them all. He could barely tolerate their presence, it was so clingy and overpowering. His sister was probably the worst of all, drowning in a guilt nothing seemed to relieve and bothering him with her presence while he was forced to pretend not only that he liked her, which he didn’t, but that he loved her and the rest of their dreadful family. He felt like an actor that deserved a cup full of gold for such an incredible performance.

  Gretha, the queen, was no wiser now than she had been upon their arrival. She still sought a way to rectify misjudging him. Little did she realize she’d judged him far too kindly at the beginning. How could she possibly know when fate had given each of his family members the kindest of outcomes? His intentions had been purely self-serving and he’d not cared a lick what their personal fate would be. The gentle treatment they’d all received in the end, had nothing whatsoever to do with the choices he’d made. If he had an ounce of kindness or goodness in him, he would feel bad about it. It was a good sign for him that he didn’t. It would be a bad sign for Gretha and her family, though.

  What kind of name was Gretha, anyway? She should hate Mother for sticking her with it. It wasn’t a strong name like Knorris. His name struck fear in the enemy. Hell, it struck fear in friends, not that he had any. He had a traitor among his people. He needed to find them before they killed his brother-in-law right under his nose. Yes, he wanted him dead but not on his own doorstep. If they waited for the king to be away from here, Knorris would help them meet their goal. Why were all killers so impatient? Well, that was all killers but him. He knew the value of doing things right. The right time and place made all the difference.

  Killing a king was not as hard as killing a king when it would benefit him the most. That would be when the king was with Jorge at the peace talks. He would have the king killed and everyone else left alive as suspects. He would even start a rumor that the queen was unhappy with her husband. Drowning in marital bliss that even a simpleton could see, it would take careful planning to make anyone believe she would kill her husband. Knorris rubbed his hands together fiendishly. He was just the man to pull it off.

  He turned to look at the woman in his bed, she was the only thing that had kept him from going stark, raving nuts. If there was ever a woman that was his match, she was it. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t slit her throat if she became difficult or pissed him off. It just meant that she was a lot like him. She had a sadistic bent and she liked receiving pain as much as she liked dishing it out. Knorris had never realized he liked being hurt. How could he when everyone else around him had been afraid to touch him? She’d been afraid too but she’d done it anyway and she thrived on her own fear. If anything she was even more twisted than he was. He was amazed and thrilled by her daily and he thanked the dark gods for her just as often.

  He reached over and smacked her on her bare ass, hard. She grumbled but she looked at him and smiled that evil smile he was so addicted to. Maybe addicted was too strong a word but she was just what he needed. She slid closer to him and wrapped her arms around him and purred in his ear. She always wanted him and she was always ready for the games he liked to play. She had the brightest red hair he’d ever seen. The freckles across her nose gave the impression of a wholesomeness that didn’t exist. Her soul was almost as dark as his but she gave him her loyalty completely as if her soul, what little she had left, recognized someone who had achieved the darkness she aspired to.

  Her lips kissed their way down his stomach and he relaxed knowing what to expect. She gave the best head he’d ever been given and the girl had no gag reflex. The woman could swallow him whole and not even blink. The feeling was fucking incredible and she was worth keeping around just for that but there was so much more. Jezbel made him forget all about his desire to bed the witch, whatever her name had been. If he could feel the warm fuzzy feelings others did, he’d say he was in love, but that simply wasn’t possible. You had to have a heart to have those feelings and he’d frozen all those things out of himself long ago. He could kick small baby animals without feeling a drop of remorse. Relatives were something he could destroy without batting an eye and the weak and the elderly had better get out of his way or end up flattened on the road.

  No one was as cruel or rotten to the core as he was. It was a fact that made him proud and Jezbel not only respected, but worshiped that part of him. She knew what made a true leader and it was the ability to hold his subjects loyalty through fear. It wasn’t the usual fear either, it was the kind of terror that inspired heart attacks in his subjects if they thought he was coming for them. Fathers hid their daughters or sent them away. Dogs hid in the shadows trying not to catch his attention and he could make a grown warrior cry.

  His attention was captured by Jezbel’s administrations. The whore was the best, he would never tell her but she was really good at what she did. Her tongue wrapped around his cockhead and squeezed. It was long and flexible, like he imagined a serpent’s tongue would be. Her mouth came down over the top and she sucked in her cheeks and his eyes rolled back in his head as bliss washed over him. It only increased when she sank all the way down to his root and swallowed repeatedly. By the dark gods the woman was skilled beyond belief. He tried to hold back so he could continue to enjoy her attention but it was like a command performance, at this point he erupted sending his seed into her greedy mouth every time.

  Making noises that gave him the impression she enjoyed what she was doing, she even smacked like his flavor suited her. It turned him on and by the time she was through, he was rising to the occasion once more. She crawled up his body, rubbing her breasts on him every inch of the way. He liked her breasts even though he’d never admit it. They were slightly smaller than the witch’s but they were firm and her nipples were big and they extended out in length like her pinky. He’d been with many women and she was the only one with nipples that long when they were hard. He loved to suck and bite on them.

  Sitting astride him, across his thighs her hand was on his hard on. “What the hell are you waiting for, an invitation?” he asked her viciously. She only smiled and rose up just enough to stuff his cock into her hot, wet pussy. He felt pure joy whenever he was inside her.

  Once fully seated, she began to ride him like her life depended on it. No slow leisurely pace for his woman. Jezbel always took life at a dead run. Her gold eyes glowed and he knew she wasn’t fully human but he didn’t give a shit as long as she was his. She’d get no sweet words or even much respect from him, but somehow he suspected she knew how he felt. He would keep her with him forever, so she better get used to it.

  He was so close he could almost taste t
he joy he would receive as he exploded into Jezbel. The knock on the door threw him off his focus but Jezbel didn’t stop until she exploded around him. His day wasn’t getting off to a good start. Jezbel had the nerve to smirk at him as she shifted to the other side of his bed and he got up and threw his robe on thinking this interruption had better be for a damn good reason. Throwing the door open wide, he pushed a calm masked over his face when he saw it was the queen herself. Gretha threw a dirty look towards Jezbel. They were of an age when the unusual names were popular with many mothers. He’d have expected them to be friends but the clarity that was absent when Gretha looked at him, was there when she looked at Jezbel. She saw the darkness and disapproved completely.

  “I had hoped to spend some time with my darling brother today, since I’ll be out of touch tomorrow,” she said in that sweet voice that he detested.

  He grinned like a fool to hide his true feelings before he responded. “We can have lunch together.”

  “Don’t you mean supper, Brother? The sun is close to setting.”

  “Where has the day gone?” he asked not expecting an answer. His sister glanced at Jezbel again as if to say your whore stole it. Not that his sister would ever be so crude.

  He both cared for and hated this sister of his. That she was so good, disgusted him, but once he’d destroyed most of her family, she would have only him to mother and one of the horrible brats. He missed being fussed over and while Jezbel loved to fuck him, she wasn’t the motherly type. His sister turned to go after telling him supper would be in an hour. The news she had given him about being out of touch was fantastic.

  “You think she spoke the truth?” Jezbel asked.

  “She loves and trusts me,” he replied confidently.

  “The more of a fool she is,” Jezbel smirked.

  It was true, his sister was a fool. He would make use of that and the information he now had that few others knew. He went back to bed to let Jezbel deal with his rock hard cock so his good humor could return. She was always up for a hard ride and he had lost those extra pounds that had made him look pudgy since he’d hooked up with her. She wanted sex all the time and she made him want it too. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was the happiest he’d ever been in his life.

  “Let me take care of it for you,” Jezbel offered.

  “Get to riding me.”

  “Not that, the problem with the king. I can deal with him,” she promised. “It’ll be done in no time.” It was a tempting offer but the general would be there and he might hurt Jezbel.

  “No, not this time. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. If it was just the king I’d let you, but the general will be there and he’s all about security.”

  “I can handle him. I want to do this for you,” she breathed in his ear.

  “No, not this time,” he said leaving no room for doubt.

  Shrugging, she finished him off before she rolled off the bed and dressed. He went to the bowl and pitcher to clean up but she didn’t bother. Her wild sex scent didn’t bother him but his sister would wrinkle her nose if Jezbel sat near her. The thought brought a smile to his face.

  “I hope you’re thinking of me, Stud,” she declared.

  “Well, if course. Who else would I think of?”

  She examined him closely making heat shoot to his cock. “Maybe we have time for another roll in the hay?” she asked.

  “After supper. You know Gretha hates to hold supper for late arrivals.”

  “If she didn’t have so many kids, I’d think she had never had sex before. Someone should pull the stick out of her ass.”

  Knorris laughed, only Jezbel could give him the deep laughs that came from his belly. He could almost visualize the king bracing his feet against something as he gripped a large stick and removed it from the queen’s ass. Jezbel shot him a glare, she didn’t like it when she felt like the butt of a joke. Too damn bad because he would not explain himself to anyone, not even her.

  Wearing his best clothes and some nice jewels that befitted his station, he was ready to leave with or without his mistress. As usual, she wore clothing that looked a cross between what you might see on a whore or a poor farmer’s wife. It bothered him not one bit, but it embarrassed his sister a great deal which made it a positive thing in his book.

  “Are you coming?” he asked.

  Jezbel replied, ”Not until after supper.”

  “Maybe not even then if you don’t behave properly,” he instructed.

  “If I behaved properly, you wouldn’t want me.”

  She had a point. Proper was boring to him. “Behave as I prefer.”

  “I’d be sucking your cock under the dining table.”

  That was true and he’d love it, but she knew what he meant. He escorted her to the dining room. His sister and her large family were already in place. There was always a kid crying and two or more fighting. The king and queen just seemed to block out the irritating sounds of children as they prepared to eat.

  “I’m glad you made it,” the queen said. She was looking at him and pointedly ignoring Jezbel.

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” he replied. A bounty was laid out on the table and the leftovers would go to the kitchen for the staff. Anything left after that went to the poor. It hurt him to give to others, but if he didn’t his sister might know and judge him for it. He’d been forced to become a better person despite himself and he hated it.

  The conversation was stilted between his attempts not to discuss tomorrow and his sister’s and Jezbel’s extreme dislike of each other. The children misbehaving didn’t help matters either. The king attempted to feel him out concerning peace and he lied his ass off telling him how hard war had been on him because of his people’s suffering. He’d told him stories of sacrifice and even wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and the king had fallen for it. The man must be a simpleton and everyone would be better off once he was deposed.

  Jezbel was making eyes at the oldest of the children. At sixteen, the boy was appealing in a wholesome way. It made Knorris want to ruin him for life. He knew just how to do it, but it wasn’t part of his plan. The boy would be safe until it was time to kill him. The other kids were younger with a year or so between them and except for a few brats, they were well behaved and sweet. It was enough to make him gag. The girls were all like their mother.

  Supper dragged, probably because he wanted to get Jezbel back to his room to fuck. There was also the small matter of finding an assassin or two to take out Jorge and the king. The peace talks would be the perfect time to ruin any chance that either side would ever back down. The emperor of the west would mourn his little brother, the king, and the emperor of the east would mourn his cousin, the general. Most people loved their family and that made them a weakness. He had no such weakness but that didn’t stop him from using that weakness in others.

  He was eating and barely listening as he went through the killers for hire that he knew locally. No time to bring in a professional since there were none around here. Even if they weren’t successful, it would breed suspicion. He knew the previous attempts on the king had made him suspicious of his own people but only because they’d been sloppy when they’d tried to shift the blame to the East. His plan would be better than that. It would be brilliant just like he was. Even if someone tried to blame him, his sister and her husband would never believe them. Everyone knew she doted on him and her husband doted on her.

  When he looked up everyone was looking at him. “I’m sorry. Did I miss something?”

  “Gretha was saying you should visit us sometime soon,” the king explained.

  “I should but my people here need me so much. I protect them from the east. They are a heartless bunch and cruel to those they capture,” he declared.

  “I had heard the opposite,” the king observed.

  “I’m sure they deny their wicked ways,” Knorris offered.

  “I would speak to someone who was mistreated,” the king said.

&n
bsp; “They are embarrassed and do not want to relive their experience,” he insisted.

  “I can understand that, but it would help me to understand our enemy,” he observed.

  Knorris thought if the king survived tomorrow, he would find someone to weave a lovely tale of torture and abuse for him. “I’ll help if I can but they hide away and deny what they’ve survived. It’s heartbreaking.”

  The king nodded and Knorris thought the fool believed every word he uttered to him. The king was clearly no judge of character or the lack of it. It was a very good thing for Knorris that the king couldn’t see what was staring him in the face. He’d hire the mercenaries that would kill the king or probably die trying since the general had more lives than a cat. Either way, Knorris knew he’d use it in his favor to further his plans and to the king’s and Jorge’s detriment. Long live the king, once he was king that is.

  Jezbel was flirting openly with the boy, no doubt pissed at him for his lack of attention. Now she had caught the king’s attention and that was never a good thing. He shot her a glare that should have made her melt but she ignored him. When had she become stupid? She should know better than to anger him. Killing her might not be his intention but when his anger burned hot, accidents happened. Smirking at him wasn’t smart either and he longed to wipe the look off her face. When they returned to the room, she would get hers.

  They finished eating and finally it was time to leave. The royal couple was only too glad to take their innocent son out of the clutches of the crazy whore that tempted him and spit in the face of their disapproval. Didn’t she realize the king could jail her or even kill her and give no reason at all? The punishment he had planned for her when they reached their room was appropriate. With their goodbyes said, he rushed her to their room.

  “Strip, bend over, and grab your ankles,” he told her as soon as the door closed. She was about to learn a lesson and the pain wouldn’t go away for a while.