Wrong Side of Hell

by Juliana Stone

  His fingers sank deep within her and she swore, “Oh, God,” squirming against him, her hands and mouth searching, desperately trying to alleviate the need he sensed.

  When a searching hand found his cock and gripped it along the head, he stopped. Fuck, he needed to get a grip or he was gonna blow early.

  “Hold it. We gotta slow down.” He whispered against her mouth.

  “I can’t.” Kira stared down at him, her mouth bruised from his, her pale cheeks now flush with passion that he owned. Passion that he felt and shared. “I feel like I’m coming apart.” She ground herself against him, her hand massaging the long length of his cock with a reckless abandon that made him harder than he already was.

  He shifted and brought her head close. He inhaled her arousal. She was all around him. Inside him. He saw his feral need reflected in the glittering pools of her eyes.

  “I’ve never wanted anyone before.” She whispered hoarsely. He saw the pain and growled in anger, but her fingers across his lips silenced him. She shuddered and moaned. “Mergerone took my innocence and for a while my grip on reality.” She was panting now, small animalistic sounds falling between her words as she continued. “But he never got close to the part of me that’s alive right now.” His fingers moved inside her, slowly and methodically, as she widened her legs and began to writhe. “The part of me that you awakened.” She exhaled. “The part of me that belongs to you.”

  Logan snarled at her words, inflamed with passion and the need to claim. He gripped her head hard as the beast shifted beneath his skin. In her hands his cock swelled even more and he barely got the words out, so hard did he have to concentrate on keeping control.

  “From this moment on you are mine.” His eyes glowed crimson and the savagery of his animal flickered within their depths. “I will not touch another from this day forward. Do you understand what that means?”

  She opened her mouth but no words were spoken. He knew she didn’t fully understand what was about to happen. He grabbed her mouth once more and this time his tongue slid into her with a gentleness that made her moan and melt against his chest. She will.

  He kissed her with a yearning matched by the need he sensed in Kira. Carefully he pulled her upward, into his arms, and he stepped out of the tub. He placed her against the countertop so that her back was to him and he held her in place, careful of her trembling legs.

  Kira Dove might have been innocent in a lot of ways, but you’d never fucking know it by the way she tilted her butt and spread her legs. Logan growled harshly, and moved behind her, his crimson eyes claiming hers in the mirror that was on the wall.

  Her breasts hung, swaying softly and swollen with need. Her mouth was open and her eyes were alive with passion. A small sound emerged from her throat—a cross between a whimper and a moan—and that’s all it took.

  “Don’t take your eyes off mine,” he ordered as his hands traveled down her back to rest at the base of her spine. He pushed her forward slightly and howled as he slid his long length deep inside her body.

  One smooth, sure stroke.

  Warmth and tightness surrounded him, and Logan paused for a moment, sweat breaking out along his body as he fought for control. Her mouth was open as she gasped, and his fingers dug into her shoulders. “Open your fucking eyes.”

  Her chocolate eyes flew open and he began to move slowly. In and out. Long, drawn-out thrusts that took him to the edge of control and made Kira whimper over and over, “oh my God, oh my God.”

  It gave Logan immense pleasure to hear her cry out as he increased the tempo, and when his fingers crept around and claimed her clitoris she screamed, her arms bracing themselves against the countertop.

  Their eyes locked together as he slammed into her, and though Logan would have preferred to take things slower, to worship her in the manner that she deserved, he knew he couldn’t do it. He was too close to the edge.

  The walls of her vagina closed around him, tightly, and she clenched as her whimpers increased. He grimaced as his canines erupted and still her dark eyes watched. She was unafraid. Fearless.

  He held her so tight that he knew she’d be bruised in the morning, but there was no going back. When he felt the pressure build—when his body strained and pumped and gripped—he roared and clamped on to her shoulder, biting down hard as the index finger of his right hand burned into her neck.

  “Logan!” She screamed his name and he held on as she shuddered against him and climaxed. Still their eyes held. His body emptied into hers and he claimed her in the way of his people. He’d tasted her blood, fed from her soul, and marked her as his.

  After several long moments, Logan felt her shudder and go limp in his embrace. He staggered backward and pulled her into his arms, kissing her forehead as he did so.

  You’re mine, Kira Dove. I’ll kill anyone who would touch you.

  Chapter Fifteen

  IT WAS DAYLIGHT. The sun found its way through the thin slats of the cheap plastic blinds, and Kira gazed upon Logan’s face. He was asleep, his features softened, younger-looking. Thick coffee-colored hair crept over his eyebrows, and his shadowed beard could give any Hollywood hottie a run for his money.

  He slept on his back, one arm flung above this head, the other still across her waist. Even in sleep his possession was absolute.

  Kira moved her legs and stifled a groan. After they’d made it to the bed, Logan had proceeded to make love to her for hours. His mouth and tongue, his fingers and cock had given her more pleasure than she thought possible. The things they’d done . . . the things he’d whispered, of pleasures yet to be experienced.

  She was sore and blushed at the thought of the tenderness between her thighs. Of the throb at her shoulder where Logan had bit her. She cracked her neck and hissed at the stab of pain there—the one that said she belonged to someone.

  Kira Dove had been adrift for years and she’d found harbor in the arms of the beast.

  “Are you all right?”

  Startled, she glanced up and inhaled sharply as his handsome face came into focus. “I am.” Her brow furled and though she hated the dark thoughts that that lingered, she knew she needed to face them. “So, where do we go from here? I’m on someone’s hit list and I’m assuming my name is still at the top.”

  His eyes darkened and he rolled over so that his head was level to hers. His hands crept along her jaw and he held her tenderly, though she sensed the anger that rode beneath his skin.

  “No one will ever touch you again. Understand?” He bared his teeth and growled. “No one.”

  Kira nodded, but in truth she didn’t really understand. There was so much she didn’t know.

  “Last night you said that,” she paused and exhaled. “You said that someone named Bill saved me.” She bit her lip. “I was beaten to death, Logan.” She held her wrists up. “And save for these scars, there’s nothing wrong with me. Hell, the whole gray realm thing is hard enough to fathom, but being dead and then brought back . . .”

  Her voice trailed into silence and she let him pull her close. She rested her cheek against his chest, listened to him breathe. Her fingers splayed across him. He was real and she would focus on that.

  “Bill is an ancient, powerful creature.” His voice rumbled beneath her and Kira closed her eyes, content to just listen to him. “He’s the one who ordered me to bring you back from the darkness when you were a child. He’s also the one who sent me into the gray realm.”

  “Why?”

  Logan paused, not really sure what or how much to tell her. “There are forces in this realm and beyond who would like to see your life ended. They fear what you represent.”

  God, Kira was so confused. “And what’s that, exactly?”

  “Hope.” He said simply.

  “Hope.” She angled her head so that she could look into his eyes. They glittered in that intense way that made her catch her breath, and she felt a stirring hardness at her hip.

  His hand slid to her lips. “You are the light tha
t will keep the darkness at bay.”

  “The light.” She repeated. Okay. “And the child?” The little boy with curls and eyes that looked so much like Logan. Pain lanced across her chest at the thought of him, and her hand fell back, drifting below to cradle her belly. Had they made a child last night? Was it her little boy she’d seen in her dreams?

  “They would see him never born.”

  Kira was silent. She didn’t know what to say to that.

  Logan rolled her up onto his stomach and held her gently above him. “I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, and the League is sworn to hold that vow as well.”

  “The League?” she asked softly, though in truth she was more focused on her sensitive nipples as they scraped along the rough hair that sprinkled across Logan’s chest. It was an exquisite torture that filled her insides with an all-too-familiar heat.

  “A group of warriors who’ve pledged allegiance to Askelon—or Bill, as he wants to be called.”

  “Oh.” His eyes were now crimson and his cock was poised between her legs.

  “I’ll explain fully later.” A wicked smile crossed his face. “Unless you want the details now?”

  Kira groaned and bent her head to claim his mouth. She kissed him long and hard, lips sliding and tongue probing. When she came up for air, she muttered hoarsely. “The details can wait.”

  IT WAS NEARLY dusk when Logan walked down to the common room at The Texan. The gentle swell of voices, the scent of greasy food and stale beer greeted him as he moved into the shadows.

  Bill was there. He sensed him.

  Logan strode toward the far corner, the one lodged between the ladies’ room and the kitchen. He felt the unmistakable pop of a protection ward as he stepped in front of Askelon.

  For a few moments there was nothing but silence. Bill’s dress was muted, his small, round body covered in dull brown from the collar of his shirt with the rhinestone buttons to the tips of his worn boots. It didn’t complement his ruddy complexion but it certainly went with the somber look in his eyes.

  “She is yours.”

  Logan eyed him and nodded.

  Bill cracked a smile, but it was one that remained near his mouth, never reaching the shimmering depths of his eyes. “Good. She belongs with you. I knew this.” Bill looked away, his small hands clenched. “They will search for her.” He glanced back toward Logan. “They won’t stop.”

  “I’m taking Kira to my mother’s,” Logan answered quietly.

  Bill looked surprised. “This is good. Until I know who hunts Kira Dove, I won’t be able to keep her safe.”

  “No one will touch her while she’s there, and I can fulfill my duties to the underworld without drawing attention to myself. The Overlord will never know . . . my father will never know, either.”

  Bill nodded, a smile breaking upon his face. “Yes, and she’ll remain untraceable while with your mother. It’s perfect.”

  Logan agreed. He turned and gazed out at the room full of humans, and for the first time sensed otherworld. Immediately his senses sharpened. His nostrils flared and he growled softly.

  A vampire was in the corner opposite him and Bill. A female. His eyes narrowed and he penetrated the shadows that clung to her. Long auburn hair fell down past her chest and eyes of cerulean blue gazed toward the door. They held pain, want, and need. Her fangs were distended, her hands clenched at her denim-clad sides.

  He turned and spied a tall dark-haired man who’d just walked into the place. The scent of magick clung to him. At his side was a blond woman, her arms around his waist as if he belonged to her. A shifter—jaguar, by the smell of him—said something to the sorcerer and headed for the bar.

  Logan’s gaze swung back to the vampire, but she was gone, and he realized that Bill was intensely focused on the drama, his strange eyes lingering on the now-empty corner.

  “Who the hell is she?”

  “Ana is a new protégé.” Bill nodded toward her. “I’m very happy to see she’s just passed an important test. The sorcerer O’Hara is someone who means a lot to her and I wasn’t sure she’d be able to remain hidden with him so close.”

  “What would you have done if she’d revealed herself?”

  Bill’s eyes narrowed and winter coated his words. “It’s good that she remained hidden.” Bill glanced up at Logan, his eyes hard, unreadable. “The tide is turning and the League needs as many soldiers as we can get, by whatever means we deem necessary.”

  Bill drifted from sight but his voice lingered long after, echoing inside Logan’s head.

  “Don’t ever doubt the lengths that I will go, to ensure our needs are met.”

  Logan blinked and felt a small, soft hand slip inside his. He glanced down at Kira and smiled, feeling his body relax almost immediately. Her blond mess of a head was growing on him.

  “Who was that?”

  “Bill.”

  “Oh.” Her eyes widened. “He’s gone? I would have liked to have met him.” She blushed. “Well, at least, conscious this time.”

  Logan turned and locked his eyes onto the sorcerer. The man’s smile faded and Logan sensed the power he held from across the room. “It’s time to go, little Dove.”

  Logan and Kira hopped into the stolen SUV and pointed it north. As the Mexican sun reflected into the rearview mirror, Logan looked ahead. He thought of the one who was out there. The one who wouldn’t stop until he had Kira. His hands gripped the steering wheel hard and he accelerated, feeling the need to go as fast as the machine would allow.

  “Where are we going?” Kira’s soft voice drew him from his dark thoughts.

  Logan replied without skipping a beat. “We’re going home.”

  “Home.” She repeated. “I like the sound of that.” She smiled at him and his heart twisted. His body heated with the need to protect. The need to keep this woman safe. “Where is that, exactly?”

  He flipped the radio on. “It’s where the sun is endless and the snow is covered in a blanket of diamonds.”

  She sighed and slid over until her small body pressed tight to his. “Sounds like heaven.”

  Logan smiled but didn’t answer. Lady, you have no idea. He increased his speed and hummed along to the strains of Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil. How appropriate.

  Seconds later only his taillights broke through the dusk, and the clouds of dust that floated above the road rose several feet into the air.

  Then there was nothing.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from

  Wicked Road to Hell,

  the first full-length novel in

  Juliana Stone’s

  League of Guardians series,

  available May 2012

  wherever books are sold.

  Chapter One

  DECLAN O’HARA STEPPED into the middle of the crossroads, a lonely stretch of pavement on the outskirts of town. The moon was barely visible, yet a thin ribbon of light bled through, basking the low-lying fog in an eerie glow.

  He glanced to his right as a series of subtle vibrations shot up his legs.

  Company was coming.

  His hands were loose at his sides and he cracked his neck in an effort to relieve some tension.

  Declan smiled in anticipation. It was about time.

  His eyes pierced the gloom. An image wavered and solidified not more than three feet from him and the smile vanished, leaving his expression blank. He studied the newcomer for a few moments, relishing the fear he sensed.

  “You’re late.” Declan’s voice was low, the tone conversational, yet the hard glint in his eyes told a different story.

  His visitor, a slight imp of a man, took a step backward and shook his head. “I got away as soon as I could.” His voice was thin and there was a nervous edge to it.

  Declan paused, welcoming the whisper of magick that rippled over his skin. “Where is he?”

  The newcomer swallowed thickly, his Adam’s apple protruding in a rapid jerk. “He’s no longer in Los Angeles.”

&nbs
p; At Declan’s frown the man continued. “He now has a protector . . . a vampire.”

  “A protector?” Interesting. “That’s all you got?”

  The slight man nodded slowly.

  Unbelievable. Declan swore under his breath and turned away. What a complete waste of time. For fuck sakes, he’d given up a bottle of merlot and a hot blonde for this? His irritation was surpassed only by his desire to get back to the lady and salvage at least part of his evening. He stepped away.

  “What about payment?”

  Declan paused, letting the energy inside him gather until his fingertips hummed with the heat of his power. He glanced back, eyebrows raised. “Payment? You didn’t give me anything I don’t already know. I wanted the location.”

  “But I warned you of the protector—”

  He laughed, though he wasn’t amused. “You think I need to be warned?” The ground beneath them trembled and danger swept in on the breeze. Declan was pissed. He had no time for this shit.

  “There’s talk . . .” The man licked his lips nervously. “There’s talk that he’s been taken to New Orleans.”

  “Fact or fiction?” Declan was fast losing patience. It didn’t take much to trigger his dark side these days.

  “I can’t be certain.”

  Declan turned once more to face him, his face hard, his eyes cold.

  “I risked a lot to come here, to meet with you. If they find out . . .” The small man’s eyes glowed, a tinge of red burning through the gloom as he snarled in anger. “Samael will kill me.”

  Declan’s surprise at the informer’s words was kept hidden. Samael? If the demon lord was involved, the game had just changed big-time. Declan’s fingers twitched, his nostrils flared as the energy in his hands sparked.

  “What does Samael want with him?”

  “I will give you no more.” The informer widened his stance and hissed. “I want payment.”

  There it was . . . the trigger.

  Declan cocked his head to the side and gave his power free rein. Mist swirled ever faster, hiding the darkness he unleashed. Wind whipped along the surface of the road, moaning as it enveloped the informant in a blanket of death. Seconds later Declan stepped over the still form that lay at his feet.