It was an equal-sided fight with both combatants of like strength. Hekat was fierce as she sought to rip off the warrior’s head and he was equally as brutal as he ripped first one, then the other wing from her body.
Tamara put her hands over her ears at the unearthly shriek of agony that came from the bat-woman’s de-winging. The sound reverberated through the walls and down the long, dark corridors but it was accompanied by ghostly applause and sighs of contentment from the Lost Ones.
He butted the fiend with his head. Wingless—and now essentially without a way to grip her opponent—she wrapped her legs around his hips and continued to nip at his neck.
“The hell with this!” Evann-Sin snarled and broke the bat-woman’s legs at the hips then tossed her body to the floor.
Even then, the fiend continued to fight. She wriggled toward her enemy on her belly and snapped at him like a rabid dog. When he kicked her in the mouth, she sank her fangs into his boot and held on.
But Riel Evann-Sin had the strength of ten men in his brawny arms and the commitment of a man who was determined to win at all costs. Angry that he could not shake the fiend loose, he set about stomping her body into a mush of blood and splintered bone.
Tamara turned her head away for the sight was not only horrifying but enough to make her lose what little food she had consumed earlier. The sounds alone were enough to make her puke. The stench was nearly unbearable and she covered her nose with the sleeve of her shirt.
At last, there was stillness and except for the whispering approval of the walls, silence fell about the corridors of Sheol. Looking around, Tamara saw her lover standing over the crushed body of his opponent and there was a deep red glow to his golden eyes.
“Warrior?” she asked softly.
He turned to look at her, and she shrank back from the savage set of his face.
“No,” he said and rushed to her, but she scrambled away, no doubt afraid of what she had seen. He stopped, coming no closer to her. “Milady?” he questioned.
“There is still Amenirdis,” she said. “I don’t trust her.”
“Neither does Cainer, but he will see to her.”
“Cainer?” she questioned. “The one Amenirdis told me about?”
He nodded. “My friend. It was his ship that brought us here.”
“Ship?” she echoed, her forehead crinkling.
“That is not important.” Cautiously, he came to her, hunkering down before her and extending his hand. “Will you come to me, milady?”
It had been the savagery that she had witnessed that had frightened her so badly, but her love was a force much stronger than the revulsion she had felt so she took his hand and he pulled her to his chest, cradling her gently against him.
“You are well?” he asked.
“Aye,” she replied. “I am now.” She could hear his heart pounding beneath her ear and she was concerned with the high heat of his body.
“It will be thus from now on,” he said, easily plucking her stray thought from the air. “I will explain it all later.” He scooped her into his arms and stood, but before he could take the first step, she reached up for his cheek and brought his mouth to hers.
The kiss was as heady as old wine. Their tongues dueled in mimicry of the thrusting into other parts of their bodies they would much have preferred. When he broke contact, he smiled wickedly at her.
“Wait until we are soaring among the stars, Sweeting, and I will fuck you until you beg me to stop!”
She grinned back at him. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, warrior.”
“We’ll see, wench,” he said as he strode down the corridor. “We’ll see.”
* * * * *
Cainer listened quietly to Amenirdis as the bat-woman explained why she had neither helped the queen nor attacked either him or the warrior. He stared into her eyes and heard more than her words. He delved into her miasma of savage thoughts and pulled up every vile thing she had ever done in her eons-old life. As she spoke, he blocked out her words and turned his attention to the walls to listen to the Lost Ones giving evidence of the great evil the bat-woman had thrust upon them.
“So that is why I have no desire to ever leave Sheol,” Amenirdis finished. “Humankind is safe from me.”
“Aye,” Cainer agreed, “but the Lost Ones will continue to suffer as you feed from them.”
“These old walls?” the fiend asked with a chuckle. “Who cares about such things?”
“I do,” the Reaper replied, and moved so fast Amenirdis never saw the blade in his hand.
The grin was still on the bat-woman’s face as her head toppled from her body. That head—eyes blinking inquisitively like those of an owl—lay wobbling back and forth on the floor as Cainer Cree pulled a laser weapon from the pocket of his tunic and fried the rest of Amenirdis to a crisp. Before he turned the white-hot point of the thing on the bat-woman’s head, he shrugged.
“And so do those whose lives are trapped inside this demonic crypt,” he told her.
Eyeballs popping, flesh searing off bone, hair shriveling to ash and fangs into so much dust, there was nothing left of Amenirdis when the Reaper had finished.
“Didn’t buy her act, eh?” Evann-Sin asked.
Cainer turned to see his fellow traveler standing there with a very delectable woman reclining in his arms.
“She was lying through her fangs. Given time, she would have come after humankind with a vengeance,” the Reaper replied.
“My thoughts, too, Lord Cree.”
“Prince Cree,” Cainer corrected, “but what’s a title among friends?”
“Warrior,” Tamara said. “Please put me down. I would like to thank your friend properly.”
“I’ll put you down when we are back on the ship. Until then, you are not leaving my arms, wench.”
Cainer chuckled. “Horny little bastard, isn’t he, Tamara?”
“Damned right,” the warrior agreed.
“Well, everything we can do here on Sheol has been done. We now need to set the Lost Ones free, but I can’t do that until we are back on board The Levant.”
“How do you plan on releasing them from their torment?” Tamara asked.
“I have spoken with them and they desire light and warmth more than anything else. I intend to give them both.”
So it was, that once they were back on The Levant and Tamara had been introduced to Aisling—and an immediate bonding between the two females had occurred—that the Reaper brought the ship around and pointed her nose toward the pile of ancient stones that was Sheol.
“Go with the Wind, Old Ones,” Cainer said softly, and released a barrage of powerful missiles that turned the stone to rubble in a matter of moments. The light flared upon the jagged mountain ledge and lit the sky for hundreds of miles, the heat from the missiles melding stone to stone in a fitting sarcophagus for those who had suffered there. In the glow of the fire, the dark silhouette of a winged horse was seen heading into the far reaches of the heavens, he, too, given his freedom.
One last sigh of relief and gratitude came from the place where Sheol had once stood and then all was silent.
“Let’s go home,” Evann-Sin said.
Epilogue
“Rabin has been reunited with his lady-wife and is pumping away like one of those rabbits on Cainer’s island,” Kaibyn reported as he hugged Queen Lilabet to his side. “What are your plans, warrior?”
“We are to be Joined at the rising of the moon,” Evann-Sin said with a measure of pride. “Master Jabali will perform the ceremony and the Panther will give the bride away.”
“Oh, and who will be your best man?” the demon inquired casually. “Rabin?”
“Aye, if I can pull him away from Momisha long enough,” he replied. “She doesn’t seem to mind being dead. Have you noticed?”
Kaibyn shrugged. “I guess not.”
Lilabet looked at her lover. “Why so glum, demon?”
Cainer Cree was watching Kaibyn. “He would like to
be a best man one day,” the Reaper said, and smiled as the demon cast him an annoyed look. “Isn’t that so, Kai?”
“No,” the demon lied. “That isn’t so.”
“Then I shouldn’t ask you to be the best man at my Joining to Aisling then?”
Kaibyn blinked. “Don’t jest with me, Reaper.”
“I wasn’t jesting, demon. It is to be a Joint Joining and I will need a man I can trust to care for my lady should the need arise.”
“Nothing of his is going to rise to any lady save me,” Lilabet snapped.
“It was merely a manner of speech, Your Majesty,” Evann-Sin assured her.
“It had best be,” Lilabet warned.
From her place sitting atop a fountain, Morrigunia giggled. Only the demon could see or hear her this time and he was looking back at her with wistful eyes. When she wagged her brows at him, he knew his days weren’t as numbered as his ladylove considered them to be.
“Besides, as soon as the Joining is over, Kaibyn is going back to Nebul with me as my consort. He has vowed to help me regain my position as queen,” Lilabet told them.
“You will make a far better monarch than Oded ever did,” King Numair commented as he joined them.
“I intend to try,” Lilabet responded.
“Where is Tamara?” Evann-Sin asked. “I thought she was with you?”
The Panther held up his hands. “She and the fair Aisling are trying on gowns. They dismissed me as though I were a mere servant in my own lair.”
“I believe I will be Aisling’s maid of honor,” Lilabet said proudly. “Will Momisha Jaspyre be Tamara’s?”
“Ah, that is what Tamara planned,” Evann-Sin acknowledged.
“Prince Cree?” Lilabet asked.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Cainer mumbled, though he doubted Aisling would be overly happy with the queen’s decision. “That is most generous of you.” He exchanged a look with Evann-Sin.
Morrigunia laughed and though no one save Kaibyn heard the tickling sound, all turned toward the fountain.
“I am off, demon,” the goddess said. “When you are through playing consort, I’ll drop by and give you a real fucking! Keep it warm for me!”
Kaibyn sighed deeply as Morrigunia vanished in a spray of multicolored lights.
“I could, of course, make you my king if you so desired it, Kai,” Lilabet whispered. “We could spend eternity together.”
The demon stared at her, aghast. “What?”
“I have asked Cainer if he would grant me a fledgling and he has agreed to do so. What do you think of that?”
Kaibyn turned narrowed eyes to the Reaper and when that one looked his way with a cocked eyebrow, Kaibyn mouthed, “I am going to fry you!”
Cainer smiled and mouthed back, “There is always the Abyss.”
Evann-Sin hid a smile behind his hand and turned away. All he wanted was a quiet room with a soft bed and his lady in his arms. Rabin had his wife to journey through the centuries with him, the Reaper had his Aisling and Kaibyn had the woman he would be expected to satisfy.
“Serves you right, you horny little bastard,” the warrior muttered.
Aye, he thought as he looked at the man who had proclaimed to the world only that morning that he was Riel Evann-Sin’s father, the world had come round to rights.
“To you,” the Panther said, holding up a glass of Chrystallusian brandy.
Evann-Sin nodded.
Aye, all was right with the world and his lady was walking toward him with a sultry promise in her lovely eyes.
About the author:
Charlee is the author of over thirty books, the first nine of which are the WindLegend Saga which began with THE WINDKEEPER. Married 37 years to her high school sweetheart, Tom, she is the mother of two grown sons, Pete and Mike, and the proud grandmother of Preston Alexander and Victoria Ashley. She is the willing houseslave to five demanding felines who are holding her hostage in her home and only allowing her to leave in order to purchase food for them. A native of Sarasota, Florida, she grew up in Colquitt and Albany, Georgia and now lives in the Midwest.
Charlotte welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, OH 44224.
Also by Charlotte Boyett-Compo:
Desire’s Sirocco
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