She flattened her hands against my chest as fire flashed across my fingertips. The flames danced within her vivid green eyes as she glowered at me.
“Do you think you can kill me?” she demanded.
“If your death were what I was after, I would have let you die in the forest.”
“I will never seal the Chosen bond with you.”
I smiled as I stepped closer and lifted a fire-encased hand to her cheek. “So you say, but I can smell how badly you want to fuck me.”
The glint in her eyes told me I’d struck a nerve. She could fight me, but we knew her body begged for mine as badly as mine did for hers.
“How do you expect this to end between us?” she asked. “We are on opposite sides of this war. One of us must die.”
I hadn’t thought much beyond calming my compulsion to claim my Chosen. I was aware she would prefer me dead, but I’d never considered the outcome of what this was between us. The immense hurdle of getting her to concede to my will was all I’d considered.
“Not necessarily,” I said as I twisted her hair around my wrist.
Her chin rose further, but she didn’t try to shove me away. “I will never join your side.”
That was true. She believed in her king too much to turn against him. There was a time when I believed in the varcolac also, but that was many millennia ago.
“I once followed a king too,” I told her. “Look at where it got me.”
“Once again, your actions landed you behind the seal. We can run circles about this all night, but we will never agree on it.”
“You’re right.” I ran my finger down her cheek. “I did sow discontent while I was free in Hell. I let my power free and stood back to watch as it wreaked havoc on those it affected. I reveled in the power I held over them because that is who I am, but who are you, Bale?”
Bale
That was the first time anyone ever asked me that question, and it threw me off. I was a fighter, loyal, and I didn’t stray from my course. But was that all I was?
I’d never considered that there might be more to me. There was no time to think about things like that when I was continually moving from one battle to the next. The only things I thought about were surviving, keeping my king alive, and winning.
I’d never considered who I was outside of that, and after meeting him, I’d never know the answer. We would kill each other.
“I’m a fighter,” I said.
“Ah,” he murmured. “So, you have no idea who you are.”
I gritted my teeth against giving into the volatile reaction he was seeking from me. “I am a warrior in the king’s army, and I will die for my cause.”
He arched a sleek, black brow. “How noble of you.”
“It’s better to have a noble purpose than none at all.”
His black eyes shimmered in the flames covering his hands. The amusement shining in those eyes annoyed and fascinated me. Didn’t he take anything seriously?
“I have a purpose,” he said. “To take down your king. But first, I intend to take you.”
I laughed. “You better find some new purposes, because you’ll fail at both.”
“Will I? I felt you caving in your dreams, and I know you crave my touch.”
My nostrils flared as he reminded me of his presence in my dreams. I will not punch him. It was what he wanted, and I wouldn’t give it to him.
His thumb brushed my lower lip; when he pulled it down, the amusement faded from his eyes. When he leaned close enough that I could feel his erection pressing against my belly, I was ashamed I had to lock my knees into place to remain standing.
He leaned so close his breath caressed my lips, and the fiery scent of him filled my nose. “You were getting closer and closer to giving in to me in those dreams.”
Like many demons, he smelled of fire and Hell, but he also held the musky scent of man and the wild aroma of horse. His scent was as enticing as his touch.
“Stay out of my dreams,” I commanded.
A small quirk to the right corner of his mouth revealed the tiniest hint of a dimple in his cheek. That boyish dimple was entirely out of place with the powerful, ruthless man before me.
“I don’t think that’s what you really want me to do,” he said.
His touch sent currents of electricity over all my nerve endings, but his words were igniting my temper. “Wrath—”
“I bet that in those dreams”—his hand settled on my hip, and his fingers slipped beneath my shirt as his gaze met mine— “you enjoyed letting me touch you.”
I balled my hand to punch him in his arrogant face, but before I could hit him, his lips claimed mine in a harsh, punishing kiss that stole my breath.
Chapter Seventeen
Bale
At first, I was so shocked I couldn’t respond. And then anger swelled within me. How dare he?
I was about to punch him in the face when he caught my fist and pinned it to the wall. He bit my lip to let me know his displeasure. I jerked against his hold, but it was impossible. Lifting one of my feet off the ground, I planned to bash my knee into his groin when his tongue stroked my mouth.
When a hot bolt of passion speared me, I would have believed Lust had entered the chamber if she wasn’t already dead. That one stroking motion caused my body to betray me. He felt so right in every single way. I’d never known it was possible to feel so torn and so at home at the same time.
His mouth on mine, his muscles flexing around me, and the rigid evidence of his arousal against my belly were sensations I’d never known I was missing, but all of them felt as natural as breathing. My body screamed for its Chosen as my brain shouted denials and started spewing rational at me.
This isn’t a dream. This isn’t a fantasy. If you give in now, you’re giving in to him for eternity!
And no matter how badly I wanted him, I couldn’t let that happen. Once he died, I was as good as dead anyway, but I would go with my pride still firmly intact. If I gave in to him now, I would die without any dignity and loathing myself.
But just a few more seconds to enjoy his kiss and his body melding to mine.
This would be the last time I ever allowed anything like this to happen; what was the harm of enjoying it for one more second?
He released my hair to rest his hand on my waist. It slid around to my ass, and he drew me closer. The fingers of my hand still on his chest dug into the thick wall of his muscle.
When he nipped my lip again, I opened my mouth to his. He could do such wondrous things with his mouth and tongue; what could he do with them between my legs?
All my restraint vanished as something primitive tore free. This man was my Chosen; he was mine to claim and enjoy. I hungered for him with a frenzy bordering on savagery.
Whatever primitive part existed to alert demons to their Chosen had taken control, and, for the first time in my life, I was happy to relinquish it. I bit his lip as his hand cupped my ass, and with one swift movement, he lifted me from the ground.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and reveled in the sensation of his shaft sliding between my thighs. When he released my wrist, my hand fell on his shoulder and ran down over his back. I marveled at his smooth, thick muscles as he awakened me in a way no man ever had.
Something so wrong shouldn’t feel this right. I wanted to scream against the unfairness of it all, but I was too lost to care.
My nails dug into his back as he turned away from the wall and stalked across the floor. Every one of his steps caused his cock to slide between my legs, and I ground harder against him.
Stop this!
But I couldn’t stop it. This was so much better than any dream, so much better than anything I ever experienced before. Then he was laying me down on the bedding I fled earlier and following me onto it.
His legs kept mine apart as he settled himself between my thighs, and his kiss changed. It eased into something more tender and somehow more unnerving. Harsh and desperate for release, I understood, but
this tenderness was unexpected.
I’d never experienced tenderness before. My sexual encounters were to ease my needs. I’d certainly never been tender with another, yet I found myself matching the leisurely pace of his tongue as his fingers caressed my face.
This tenderness was more difficult to resist because it was so new and tantalizing. I’d never expected to experience it in my life, but now that I had, I didn’t know how I’d lived without it.
As his hands traveled down my body, they awakened and exposed every weakness I had for him. If he wasn’t kissing me, I’d beg him to end this torment and finally give me what I was so desperate to experience.
My skin tingled with anticipation; my heart hammered faster than it ever had during any battle I ever waged. I was more scared than I’d ever been in my entire life, but I welcomed it. I had no other choice but to embrace it because I couldn’t resist it. In his arms, I felt more at peace than ever before, even as a tumult of emotions assaulted me.
His hands slipped the button on my pants free while my fingers fumbled for the button of his pants. I had to feel his dick in my grasp; I had to know what it was like to have it inside me when he released his seed for the first time in his life.
However, no matter how desperate I was for him, my hand stilled when his fangs scraped my lower lip. Those fangs hadn’t been there before.
I didn’t know if he was like me and always possessed fangs that descended at certain times, or if he was like other demons, who developed fangs when they discovered their Chosen so they could mark them. Either way, the knowledge of what he would do with those fangs doused my desire.
With a willpower I never knew I possessed, I placed my hands against his chest and shoved him. My strength, combined with the fact he wasn’t expecting it, allowed me to throw him off me. I rolled out from under him and stumbled into the darkness.
It was only then that I realized his flames had extinguished and I couldn’t see. I was grateful for this, as I couldn’t stand to look him in the eye right now. My hands quivered as I buttoned my pants and stumbled toward the wall.
Wrath cursed explosively behind me, and a slap echoed through the chamber when he smashed his palms off the floor. Fire blazed to life. Its flames created shadows on the wall as I stared at the rock while trying to get control of myself.
“What the fuck, Bale? What the fuck!”
Like the slap, his words rebounded off the walls until they repeatedly hammered into my head. What was wrong with me? I knew the Chosen bond was something more powerful and primitive than any demon could ever understand, but I should be able to resist it better. I was stronger than this.
Except, I was proving to be weaker than I ever believed possible. I’d lost my family and sacrificed many things over the years. I’d lost feet and legs and arms and ears and eyes. They all grew back, but none of it was the most pleasant of experiences.
Unlike other demons, I didn’t lounge around and drink mjéod between battles. I didn’t hang out in the Forest of Prurience after a fight. When I wasn’t sleeping or screwing, I was training, preparing, and strategizing.
I was one of Kobal’s seconds-in-command, and I’d almost bound myself to the enemy. No, I was already bound to the enemy, even if the Chosen bond wasn’t complete. The two of us would forever be intertwined; nothing could ever change that.
But I would not crawl into bed with him.
I inhaled a ragged breath as I regained control of myself. My brain was running the show again, and my body was not happy about it. Too bad.
Bowing my head, I ran a hand through my hair and tugged at the ends as I tried to figure out my next step. I had to get out of here; the more time I spent with him, the more likely I would be to fall prey to my instincts. I tried to hate him for making me feel so weak, but that was my fault, not his.
One thing was certain, I couldn’t kill him. I’d been so confident I could and would be the one to take his head, but it would never happen. I’d take one look into those black eyes, and I would falter. He’d saved my life, and he made me feel things I never expected to feel; he was the enemy, he had to die, but it would not be by my hand.
That knowledge only made me feel weaker and hate myself more, but there was nothing I could do about it. The only good thing was, I probably wasn’t going to be alive to hate myself much longer.
I couldn’t kill him, but one of the others would. I had to learn where I was and escape so I could let them know where to find the horsemen.
“Take me out of here,” I said with more conviction than I felt.
Turning to face him, I lifted my chin as I met the orange and red flames burning in his eyes. Fire rose to encase his arms. The fury emanating from him crackled against my skin; he’d lost control of his power.
However, instead of feeling overwhelmed by his ability, I braced myself against it and maintained control. Wrath’s lips skimmed back, and he bared his fangs at me.
“I will not allow our Chosen bond to deepen.” I was glad I sounded so confident, because I sure didn’t feel it.
The fire engulfed him and illuminated the entire spacious cavern. I frowned at the black hell rock surrounding us. Had the horsemen found a way back into Hell, or had this place rose from the collapse of Hell like the Asharún?
Then, just as the fire encased all of him, it died down, and the rage pulsing against me retreated like a vacuum sucked it in. His flames became the barest spark encasing his hands and wrist.
I never would have guessed he could control his fury so easily, but he’d had many years to learn how to control his impulses.
“Why would I take you out of here?” he asked. “I’m a monster, remember?”
“It’s impossible to forget.”
A small crackle of fury blistered across my skin before it retreated again. Without a word, he lifted my sword and scabbard. He slid them over his back before stalking out of the cavern.
Chapter Eighteen
Wrath
I was so mad I could choke her, but since I couldn’t bring myself to harm her, I was close to hammering every one of the statues to pieces. I wanted to batter them and tear into them with my newfound fangs until only dust remained. And once there was nothing left of them, I would start on the walls of this place and tear it apart with my bare hands.
I seethed with the knowledge my Chosen was so full of self-righteous certainty she would deny us the exquisite pleasure of each other. I was so close to possessing her and losing myself in a way I’d never lost myself before.
My hands would never forget the silken feel of her skin beneath my palms. My mouth would always remember the taste of hers. The woman had burned herself onto every one of my cells and become a part of me.
What would happen if I did claim her?
For the first time, my heart didn’t race with excitement over the possibility as a cold prickle of trepidation slid down my spine. I expected to claim her and keep her. I would break her of her loyalty and pride. She would forget about her king once she was in my bed.
Except, I was beginning to realize she wouldn’t forget. I might be the one who ended up forgetting. I might be the one who changed.
No, I was already changing. I hadn’t been with a woman since discovering what she was to me, I found myself more amused by her than anything else ever in my life, and I had restrained myself from killing others to make her happy… something she did not appreciate at all.
I also cared about her feelings; I’d never cared about another’s feelings before or considered them, but I did with her. It was one more thing she did not appreciate.
No!
I punched the wall and relished the breaking sound of rock reverberating through the tunnels. I unleashed some of my pent-up wrath as I pummeled the wall again and again. The constriction in my chest eased as bits of rock and dust piled around my feet, and I could breathe easier again.
I’d broken a good-sized hole into the wall before I pulled my fists away and inhaled a deep breath. Rage still
seethed beneath my surface, but I was in control again. I would kill the varcolac, and I would never allow a woman, Chosen or not, to deter me from that. She would cede to my will.
The longer she was here, the more time I had to touch and taste her, the more likely she would give in to me. So then why was I storming toward the entrance to kick her out?
She had me so rattled I couldn’t think straight. When I stopped in the middle of the tunnel, I discovered I stood beside the woman who once held the bowl. I studied her before taking a deep breath and turning back to Bale.
I’d expected to find her standing behind me with her chin raised in defiance and ready to fight, but she was only a few feet outside my cavern. Her mouth hung open as she gazed at the tunnel in horror, and the faint red hue of her skin had faded until she was nearly white. Zorn stood near her. Sometime during the night, he’d left my chamber to stand watch outside of it.
“What are we doing here?” she whispered so low I barely heard the words.
Sick of her games, I strode back toward her. I still had no idea what I was going to do with her, but I certainly wasn’t going to stand here talking about statues. “This is where we are staying.”
“You’ve been staying in Eldorata?”
The way she said the name caused one of my eyebrows to raise. I’d never heard of Eldorata before, but she said it with a reverence that had nothing to do with awe and everything to do with terror.
“If that’s what you call this place, then yes, that’s where we’ve been staying.”
“You idiots.”
I stopped to scowl down at her, but she still looked a little too shellshocked to be aware of me.
“Have you seen him?” she asked.
Edge of the Darkness (Hell on Earth Book 4) Page 10