Damned and Desirable (Eternally Yours Book 2)

by Tara West

  Sarge added an “amen” to my threat, and Jack confirmed it with a snarl.

  The demon’s fishy eyes bulged. “I’m not tricking you, Master. See the tip of that pyramid beyond those stones?”

  I cast my gaze upward, nearly stumbling when my eyes beheld the towering peak. “I see it. God Almighty, I had no idea such a monolith existed in Hell.”

  “That is where you will find your dragon brother. I swear it.”

  I let out a slow breath before trudging forward. The demon had given his word, which meant exactly nothing. The only way to discover what was beneath that pyramid was to go inside.

  I stilled when a horn sounded in the distance, a low, deep wail as powerful as a blaring cargo ship siren. They knew we were coming. Hopefully, whatever awaited us beyond that fortress wasn’t more powerful than a three-legged dog and some road-weary hunters, or we were all damned for good.

  Ash

  Note to self. Torture sucks. Torture sucks big fat demon balls.

  Katherine’s whip across my back sent me tumbling to my knees. Little fun fact about me: I might have had a big mouth and a bad attitude, but I was no fighter. Damn. I should have listened to my mom and stayed in Tae Kwan Do, though I didn’t know if my weak ninja skills would have done any good. It was kind of hard to defend myself while I was writhing in pain from the venom that shot up my limbs. Her snake had bitten my collarbone, the poison coursing through my veins at an alarming rate. The pain was more intense than any I’d ever known, like fibromyalgia times infinity.

  I lay immobile on the floor, my face pressed against the warm stone as my drool pooled around me. I grunted when I felt her foot on my back, and then cried out when I felt her full weight on me. She might have looked like a petite demon, but what she lacked in size, she made up for in weight. She walked up my spine, which was still tender from the gash caused by my new wings. Was she going to break my spine and leave me paralyzed, or was she going to kill me and cast me to the second dimension of hell? At this point, the second dimension was looking like paradise compared to my captivity.

  “Leave her be!”

  Callum clenched the bars with whitened knuckles, pressing his wan face against the iron as steam poured from his nose.

  How had he managed to stand? I could tell by the way his limbs shook he was not well.

  “Oh, Callum,” I whimpered, though I knew he couldn’t hear me, “please lie down.”

  When he reached a hand through the bars, I saw tears streaming down his snout. “Torture me instead,” he pleaded.

  She jumped off me, walking toward him with a slutty swagger. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

  His nostrils flared. “Katherine, don’t do this.”

  “Very well, then,” she said with a girlish giggle. “If you insist.”

  She slipped out of her robe, exposing her bare ass to me as she pressed against the cage. That snake of hers was writhing down her back, its serpentine tongue darting across her skin. Gross.

  Luckily, her slut session was cut short after she began coughing on Callum’s smoke. She stepped back, fanning her face. “I would force you to make love to me in exchange for leniency, but I can tell by the way you tremble, you’d be a useless lover.”

  Her snake lashed out at him, wrapping his neck in a noose. His face reddened as he fought against the serpent.

  I had no idea where I found the energy to get up, but I pumped my wings hard until I was standing on shaky legs. Despite the pain which coursed through me like liquid concrete, I lifted my heavy arms, channeling balls of energy into my palms.

  She still had her back to me, her laughter echoing off the cave walls as she squeezed the life out of Callum.

  I had one chance to strike, and then I knew she’d be upon me.

  “Miftress, stop,” the giant’s booming voice echoed behind me.

  He stomped past me in a few heavy strides, shaking the ground beneath my feet and causing me to tumble to the floor.

  Releasing Callum, she spun around with a snarl, not even intimidated by the hulking giant bearing down on her. “Did I tell you to come out of your corner? How dare you disobey my orders!”

  She threw open the cage door and pointed. “Get the bitch, and you can sit inside with them.”

  Then she walked up to me and sneered before spitting on my neck. When the anti-venom trickled down my collarbone and pooled around my wound, I squeezed my eyes shut and involuntarily arched my back as liquid ice seized my veins. Dear God it hurt, but at the same time, the rush was amazing, like demon heroin. I was still held captive by the antidote when Garf hoisted me into his arms and carried me inside the cell. He nearly knocked the wind out of me when he laid me on a straw pallet before placing Callum next to me.

  “Thank you, Garf,” I barely rasped the words, but he’d already escaped to a pallet in the corner, flattening the straw beneath him like a flat iron on a pancake.

  Thankfully, I heard the bitch storm out of the cave, the hiss of her snake fading as her footsteps echoed down the chamber.

  Despite the fact that every inch of my body ached as if I had the flu, I lifted my head and snuggled against Callum’s chest. I laid my hand on his heart, relieved to feel the rise and fall of his chest.

  “Please don’t die,” I begged on a sob, and then an idea struck me. I wiped some of Katherine’s saliva off my neck and rubbed it across Callum’s wound. I had no idea if snake anti-venom would work on a scorpion sting, but it was worth a shot.

  “Ash,” he mumbled.

  “I’m here, Callum.” I stroked his forehead before tucking a strand of thick, dark hair behind his ear. Weird how his skin and eyes had morphed into dragon form, but he retained his bushy hair, just like Aedan’s.

  “I’ve been thinking about your nettle,” he said on a wheeze. “Something she said to you earlier. Did my brother really call you Mar in bed?”

  Of all the things to think about when you’re writhing in pain. “Yes.”

  “That fool,” he chuckled. “He’ll regret it for all eternity.”

  I leaned up on my elbow, placing a finger to his lips as I looked down into his molten eyes. “Please don’t speak. I know it hurts you.”

  He smiled, not one of joy but the kind that masked a deep sorrow. “It’s only pain, Ash. I’ve been dealing with it for over a hundred years.” He reached up, tapping my nose. “For the record, you’re a far better woman than Mar ever was.”

  My face warmed. “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.” I stroked his temple until I heard the deep and even breathing of his slumber. When I was certain I wouldn’t wake him, I leaned up and kissed his scaly cheek. He wasn’t all bad, that dragon friend of mine. Considering my current fate, I was lucky I had a friend at all.

  Hell’s First Dimension

  October 2, 1905

  Katherine O’Connor

  “You’re letting him go? Why?” I flew out of bed as my master dressed. I had pleasured him long into the night and this was how he rewarded me? By releasing the bane of my existence?

  “Because I’ve grown tired of torturing him,” he said with a sigh as he buttoned his trousers.

  But this was not to be! Didn’t he care that I took satisfaction in tormenting Callum as well? A few more years and I was sure his resistance would crack. “But he has not signed the blood oath.”

  “I know, but he is a powerful demon, and I could use his haunting skills in the mortal realm.”

  He said this without care that my heart was breaking. Callum wasn’t just another demon plaything for my enjoyment. He was my last tie to my mortal life, a reminder of my carefree days and freedom, a time when all I’d had to do was bat my lashes, and men of my choosing would fall over their feet to win my favors. My charms had even worked on Callum once; though it hadn’t been too long ago, it felt like ages.

  But I could not let my master know the real reason I needed Callum, though it pained me to hide the truth from him. Over the years, I’d found weaknesses in the blood bond and learn
ed how to secretly defy him while adapting to the discomfort.

  “Do you think it wise to release him, Master?” I asked, a bold move to challenge his authority. My servitude had turned into one of testing boundaries, for I quickly learned he enjoyed my defiance, especially as it prompted him to come up with new forms of punishment.

  He turned on me with a snarl, unsheathing his fangs as his tail rattled and curved above him. “Do you think it wise to question me?” Six hands hauled me out of bed, pulling my nude body up against his hard chest, dangling his venomous tail precariously close to my face.

  I knew he wouldn’t strike there. My beauty was like a prize to him, a symbol of his status. My baby hissed as she slithered up my neck. I silently beckoned her to lie still. Though her venom was strong, she was no match for Scorpius.

  “Forgive me, Master,” I begged as I forced my limbs to shake.

  He cupped my cheek in his hand. “You’ve grown too brash, fair one. Perhaps I should beat you more often.” He must have seen the excitement in my expression, for his eyes lit up with a demonic glow as he chuckled. “Ahhh, but you’d enjoy it too much, wouldn’t you? I’ve forgotten what a whore you are.”

  I blushed as I thought of the instruments of torture Master had used on me the previous night, and how I’d come to enjoy the sting of the cracking whip and the crushing grip of his tail wrapped around my throat while all six of his hands squeezed and prodded my tender flesh.

  “Pleasure must be meted with pain,” I answered demurely, casting my gaze to the floor, knowing he took satisfaction in my subservience.

  He cupped my breast in his strong grip, squeezing until I cried out. “My demons tell me my prisoner has not succumbed to your charms, though you appeared naked in his cell and tempted him with water. Why would he refuse such a fair angel?”

  My lower lip quivered as I shook off the sting of Callum’s rejection. “I don’t know.”

  He leaned into me, menace in his gaze. “Tell me the real reason you don’t want me to release him. Is it because he’s resistant to my torture or immune to your advances?”

  I tried to pull away. “I simply do not want him causing trouble for you, Master.” He knew I was lying. I could sense it in his erratic pulse as he crushed me in his embrace.

  “He won’t,” he answered on a low growl.

  Batting my lashes, I looked at him with wide eyes, eyes that I knew drove him mad with desire. “How can you be sure?”

  “Because he promised me he would not.”

  I heard the rattle of his tail and then cried out when he struck my shoulder. The pain was so intense, I would have crumbled to the floor if he hadn’t held me in place.

  The poison instantly took hold, causing my head to spin and my breaths to come in shallow gasps, and still I defied him. “And you believe his promise?”

  “No, but he believes mine,” he said as he scraped a path down my neck and shoulder with sharp teeth. He suckled the poison from my wound, moments before the agony consumed me. “That if he ever were to cross me, I would bring him back to my dungeon and torture him for all eternity.”

  Ash

  I woke up with a splitting headache and a throbbing backside, shuddering as memories of my torture washed over me.

  Fucking bitch.

  She brought crazy ex-wife to a whole new level.

  I sat up and looked at Callum, wondering how long I’d slept in the crook of his arm. His face was still pale, though there was a touch of color in his cheeks. He was sleeping soundly, the even rise and fall of his chest making me sigh with relief. Had the snake anti-venom worked?

  I spun around at the booming commotion coming from the other end of the cell. That’s when I saw two bulging, grey eyes staring back at me. The giant. Katherine had locked him in the cage with us. I looked around the cell to see it was otherwise bare. Nobody had brought us food or beverage. I sure hoped this monster wasn’t hungry, and if he was, I sure hoped he was a vegetarian.

  “Eat?” He asked as he held something out to me, the chains around his wrists clanking with the movement.

  For a moment, I thought it was a corndog before I realized it was the headless body of a rat.

  I ignored the rumbling in my stomach and waved it away. “No thanks,” I lied. “I’m not hungry.”

  Truthfully, I was hungry enough to eat almost anything, even gluten, though I knew it would run right through me, but I had to draw the line at cave rat.

  My idea of eating almost anything was more along the lines of a hot dog without mustard or an overcooked chicken sandwich with no mayo.

  Yeah, roughing it, I know.

  Garf commenced to eating the rat without me, curling it up in his long tongue and rolling it into his wide mouth, swallowing it whole. I briefly wondered if Garf was related to a frog, because he had the mannerisms of one. I almost wanted to tell him to chew his food or he’d get indigestion, but I left it alone. If he didn’t get an upset stomach from dirty, raw rat, he had a gut of iron.

  “Do those chains hurt you?” I asked as I pointed to the scars on his wrists and neck.

  He frowned. “Yah.”

  He got up and stomped over to me, falling to his knees with a thud that made me bounce off my pallet.

  “I’m sorry, Garf.” I scooted back and smoothed a hand through my frizzy hair, trying my best to keep my composure. I held out a hand, praying he wouldn’t crush it. “I’m Ash. Nice to meet you.”

  Fortunately, he only held out one grimy finger. I tried not to think about where that finger had been when I shook it.

  He pouted and scratched his head. “You not act like demon.”

  “I’m not a demon.” I shrugged. “I’m not supposed to be, anyway.”

  He pointed at my feathers. “You haf wings, like angel.”

  “I wish.” I rolled my eyes, thinking of the night I’d died. The sex. The party. The cheesecake. Did I mention the sex? I’d fallen a long way down since that night. Getting kicked out of Heaven and winding up in this shithole had to be the worst demotion of the century. Not even close to the time my old boss, Mr. Schwartz, had cut my hours after I called him a dickwad. I heaved a sigh as I crossed my legs. “If God would have let me stay in Heaven, I wouldn’t be in this mess now.”

  His eyes widened as he angled back his long neck. “A fawen Angel.”

  “Sort of.”

  His bottom lip trembled for a moment, and then he straightened his shoulders. Whew. For a minute there, I’d thought he was going to lose it. And then he buried his face in his hands and bawled so loud, he sounded like a dying elephant.

  Just great.

  “Please don’t cry,” I begged.

  He pulled his hands from his eyes and sat up, smiling ear to ear. “Okay, Garf no cry.”

  I couldn’t help but smile back. “You’re not like a demon, either.” He was more like a ginormous toddler than anything. An ugly ginormous toddler. Poor guy.

  His grin tilted to one side. “Garf not demon. Garf Nephilim.”

  “Nephilim?” I briefly remembered hearing about them in Sunday school during one of those rare times I’d been paying attention. I thought they were the children of a forbidden love affair between fallen angels and mortals. I couldn’t understand why he had been cast down to hell, and I certainly didn’t get why he’d been chained up like a dog. “You’re too nice to be her slave.”

  His bottom lip hung off his face like a deflated tire. “Garf not like being Miftress’s slave. Miftress trick Nephilim. She come to Nephilim den and say she angel come to take Garf to Heaven.” He wiped a tear off his face with the back of his hand. “She no angel. She no take Garf to Heaven.”

  My heart broke at the sorrow reflected in his watery eyes. Forget the torture Katherine had put me through. What she’d done to this gentle giant was far worse. She deserved to be cast down to the lowest level of this rat-infested shit hole. “I’m sorry. When was this?”

  He frowned as his shoulders slumped. “Garf no remember. Long, long time.”


  I fluttered up to him and placed both hands on his grimy knuckles, squeezing. The look of appreciation in those big grey eyes almost made my trip to Hell worth it. Almost.

  “I wish there was a way we could all get out of here,” I said as I squeezed harder. But I knew there was no way out, not when we were at the mercy of such powerful demons. Unless God decided to take pity on a frizzy-haired fallen angel, a scorned son of sin, and a damned and desirable dragon, our future looked pretty hopeless.

  Present Day

  Katherine O’Connor

  I rode on top of my demon master, careful not to disturb his venomous tail, which hovered above us. Sliding up and down the slick length of his massive shaft, I cried out as my orgasm crested. I paused, holding my breath, grinding his thick head deep into my channel as my juices flooded around him. Heaving a sigh of contentment, I fell against his chest. I always took my pleasure first, for I knew if I did not, he would leave me unsated.

  His tail rattled as he yanked the chain around my neck and flipped me over, digging his claws into the globes of my ass while stretching my anus open with another set of strong hands. I hissed when he jammed his head into my puckered hole without having prepared me for his girth. My delicate skin ripped open when he slid in with one forceful thrust.

  Screaming, I tried to pull away, but he dug another set of claws into my sides, anchoring himself inside me, thrusting once, twice, three times more before he roared and stilled. His warm seed spurted in deep pulses, causing another orgasm to rip through me with painful pleasure. I groaned my delight. The agony had been so worth it. When he was entirely spent, he slid out, saying not a word as I mopped up blood and sperm.

  Frowning, I looked at his broad backside, which would have been magnificent had it not been shrouded by that skeletal tail. It clacked like a sack full of marbles as he flexed all six muscular arms and admired his form in the chipped, full-length mirror. He truly was a specimen to behold, tall and muscular with skin the color of polished onyx, an immortal demon king, and I, as his lover, was his queen.