Edge of the Darkness (Hell on Earth Book 4)

by Brenda K. Davies

“Why not?”

  “Because they’ll come for me when they learn I’m with you.”

  “How will they learn that?”

  “Nothing remains secret amongst demons, Bale, especially when it’s something as big as this.”

  “And will they try to kill you?”

  I turned my attention back to the falling snow. “Yes.”

  She didn’t speak as the snow swirled around us, and occasionally the wind would cause a blast of it to plaster against my face. I despised the cold of this plane, but I much preferred it to life behind the seal. I preferred anything to being behind the seal.

  However, life behind the seal wasn’t life, but I hadn’t had much of a life before I was locked away either. My existence before the seal consisted of inciting others to murder and sitting back to watch my anarchy unfold. Demons were nothing but puppets to me, and I expertly played their strings.

  Aside from sex, which had also become dull and monotonous, it was the only entertainment I had, and my amusement with it was fading. Before the seal, my fellow horsemen and I became crueler and created more chaos to add some excitement to our lives. We were devolving into something I barely recognized, but I eagerly rode that path of destruction as it was the only thing allowing me to feel anything anymore.

  Until I kissed Bale in the minotaur’s cave, and she was right about that, I kissed her, and I would do it a million more times if it meant I’d get to stand in the snow with her. Because for the first time in more millennia than I could recall, I felt alive.

  She wanted answers about where we would go from here, but I didn’t have any answers for her. The best I could tell her was I would keep her safe. I still wanted the varcolac dead, but I would figure that out later.

  For now, I preferred to forget everything and everyone between us, and she could help me. Stepping closer to her, I clasped one of her cold hands and drew her toward me. She came far easier than I’d anticipated, and as I pulled her against me, I clasped the sides of her face and lifted it.

  Her lime green eyes searched mine as her mouth parted. Her sweeping, dark red lashes fell to shadow her cheeks before rising again. Uncertainty shone in her gaze, but so did desire.

  Neither of us knew what to do with the other, but for now, and the next few hours, I would make sure it didn’t matter.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Wrath

  I claimed her mouth in a kiss that affected me almost as much as her, but whereas I remained unmoving, she swayed toward me. Before Bale, I’d never kissed another, but I couldn’t get enough of it with her. The heat of her mouth, the taste of her, and the way she melted against me all created an intoxicating effect that would forever hold me in its thrall.

  Stepping back, I pressed her against the wall of the hotel as I released her face and settled my hands on her hips. If she were any other demon, I would take her here and now, but she wasn’t any other demon.

  She was my Chosen, and I was acutely aware of the guards in the woods, probably watching us. I would not allow them to see what belonged to me. Reaching behind her, I fumbled across the brick wall and then the metal door before grasping the handle and pulling it open.

  With tender hands, I guided Bale into the hotel while continuing to kiss her. The door slid shut with a swish behind us. I pushed her into the wall as I rested my hands on either side of her head.

  I broke the kiss to gaze at her. Her face was half hidden in shadows, but she could never hide her beauty. Using my knuckles, I skimmed the contours of her cheeks before sliding them down to her neck.

  Her breath sucked in and her chest rose toward me when I rested my fingers against my mark. My canines tingled as my newfound fangs sought to descend. I was going to mark her all over her body before this night was over.

  “This way,” she said.

  Before I could respond, she ducked under my arm and sauntered down the hall. When she shrugged out of her coat as she walked, I fell back to watch the enticing sway of her hips. She reached the end of the hall, glanced back at me, and smiled slyly. She grasped the bottom of her sweater and pulled it off to drape it over the arm still holding her coat.

  Then she turned the corner and vanished. I ran down the hall to catch up to her. When I arrived at the junction where she turned left, I discovered her standing outside an open door. She had her foot propped against the door, and her clothes were no longer in hand. Her eyes held mine as she pulled off her last shirt to reveal her lush breasts and pert nipples.

  My eyes shot around the hallway to ensure no one else saw her, but there was no one else around. The sexy smile she gave me caused my dick to harden so fast I nearly groaned. Then she vanished.

  The door was almost closed by the time I got there. I shoved it open with the palm of my hand. She was already out of her boots and unbuttoning her pants when I entered the room. I stopped to take in the beauty of her as she wiggled out of her pants and let them dangle off her foot before kicking them aside.

  The door clicked shut behind me. In the ensuing silence, my heartbeat thundered in my ears while I drank in her splendid beauty. The moonlight filtering around the edges of the curtains emphasized her curves as it spilled over her.

  My erection made every step toward her difficult. My hands settled on her hips, but I didn’t pull her closer. Instead, I stood and memorized the vision of her in all her naked glory.

  I would never forget the swell of her full breasts, the flatness of her belly, the flare of her hips, or the curve of her thighs. She was lean muscle and seductive curves all rolled into one. And she was mine.

  Her fingers found the buttons of my shirt and slid them free. I studied the shadows wavering over her face as she pushed my shirt back over my shoulders.

  I let it fall to the floor as her hands ran leisurely over me. She traced each of the lines and dips in my muscles like she was memorizing me too. I didn’t move while she explored me before bending to kiss my chest.

  Her lips ran over me as her tongue left a trail down my chest to my belly before she gracefully rose. She stepped close enough that her breasts brushed my flesh while her hands found the button of my pants.

  As she undid it and pushed my pants lower, I kicked off my boots and then my pants when she pushed them down to my feet. Her breasts brushed my shaft, and I held my breath as I waited for her to claim me with her mouth.

  Kneeling before me, she smiled as she clasped my dick, and her tongue flicked the head of it. My hands fisted at my sides as she continued to tease me with small, short licks before moving lower over my dick.

  She tasted me all over before slipping me into the hot recesses of her mouth. My hips swayed toward her as her mouth and hand did wondrous, tortuous things to me. But I had to see her.

  Looking at her again, I gripped the back of her head and held my breath as I watched her work me. She was so beautiful, and she was mine as my hips thrust into her mouth. She gripped my ass, drawing me deeper. I was on the verge of coming when she pulled away from me.

  She rose and grasped my shaft to stroke it. I braced my legs apart while her other hand explored my chest. I gave myself over to the exquisite sensations my Chosen evoked.

  Sex was always pleasurable and fun, but with her, it was something so much more. It was pure ecstasy when I was inside her, listening to her cries and giving her what no other ever could, my seed. I felt it rising inside me now, eager to spill free inside her again. It was another way I could brand her as mine, and like marking her, I planned to do it numerous times tonight.

  When I was close to coming, I grasped her hand and stilled it. She nipped at my shoulder in displeasure, but I held her wrist as I studied her. Her hair shone the color of blood, and her eyes were a vivid, dancing green.

  I held her gaze as I directed her over to the bed. When her knees caught the end of it, she sat and stared up at me. She reached for my cock again, but I guided her onto the bed and knelt before her. Grasping her legs, I pulled them apart and dragged her ass to the edge of the bed.
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  I draped her long limbs over my shoulders, and her eyes met mine as her breath came faster. Bending my head, I inhaled the sweet scent she emitted before I tasted her. Her eyes closed as I used my tongue and fingers to get her so wet and needy she wiggled on the bed while her breath came in small, enticing pants.

  Her hands ran down her breasts and across her belly. When she caressed her breasts again, her head twisted to the side, and semen formed on the head of my shaft. It took all I had not to relieve myself. However, I would be inside her again when I came.

  Her back arched off the bed, and she cried out. I tasted the sweetness of her release before reluctantly pulling away from her. I wanted inside her so badly my entire body thrummed with it as I bit into her thigh.

  She cried out again as her hand stretched between her legs and started to play with herself while her hips rose and fell. I’d just made her come, but she was ravenous for more. However, I was the only one who would make her come tonight. She whimpered her complaint when I grasped her hand and pulled it away.

  I released my bite on her thigh and slid up her body. I marked her hip and her side before taking a breast into my mouth and biting down. Her hips rose demandingly, and her hands grasped at me as I moved her further back on the bed.

  She locked her legs around my waist and dug her heels into my ass. Releasing my bite on her breast, I seized her wrists and pinned them above her head as I leveled myself over top of her.

  “What do you need?” I demanded.

  Her eyes were dark with passion when they met mine. “You.”

  My hands constricted on her wrists as the head of my shaft parted her entrance, but I didn’t go any further. “Tell me, Bale. What do you want from me?”

  Her eyes burned with fire, and she tried to lift her hips and thrust herself onto me, but I held back to stop her from doing so. Her jaw clenched, but she must have seen something on my face as some of her anger melted.

  For a second, I saw the turmoil she kept hidden boiling to the surface and a desperation that matched mine. I knew what she needed because I needed it to; the only problem was, we were both so different, yet so stubborn and set in our ways. The vulnerability on her face caused some of my hostility over the fact she hadn’t marked me to ease.

  Releasing her wrists, I clasped her face as I kissed her again and slowly entered her. I already knew what she wanted from me; I didn’t know if I could give it to her, but I could give her this.

  We joined with a tenderness I’d never experienced before. Sex was always an animalistic thing to me. My partners’ needs meant little to me, just as mine meant little to them. We were both there for only one thing, to get off.

  But with Bale, I was here for something else. What that something else was, I didn’t know, but I felt it at the edge of my fingertips, just beyond my reach.

  She was in my reach now though, and I was going to do everything I could to make us happy.

  I moved within her as I leisurely explored her body and left marks on her shoulders, neck, and breasts. Her fingers dug into my back, and her heels bit into my ass as each bite elicited a new cry from her.

  She came two more times. Each time her sheath contracted around me, I barely held back from finding my release inside her, but I wasn’t ready for this to end. Sweat slickened our bodies as her breath warmed my ear and tickled my neck.

  When she nipped my ear, I felt the tips of her fangs and shuddered. I wanted them to sink into my flesh, but despite the ecstasy of our joining, she still wasn’t giving in to me completely.

  Her hand gripped the back of my head, and her fingers slid through my hair as she held me closer. Her warm breath panted against my neck with each of her rapid exhalations, and I stiffened when her fangs grazed my flesh but didn’t pierce it.

  I couldn’t take much more of this torture. She was mine, I was hers, and nothing could change that.

  Determined to make her see this, I sank my fangs into her shoulder as I moved faster within her, demanding more from her as I tried to sate my growing frustration. I could barely withstand the pressure in my shaft, but I had to feel her mark me as hers too.

  I was about to admit defeat and give in to my release when her fangs scratched my throat before sinking deep. My shock over her claim held me immobile.

  Then joy burst through me.

  The emotion was so unusual that at first, I couldn’t put a name to it. It was sweet and pure and unlike anything I ever experienced before. Something shifted and changed in me, something broke free that I didn’t understand, but I welcomed it as I found my release inside my Chosen.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Bale

  I couldn’t resist marking my Chosen anymore, and I didn’t want to. I was desperate to claim this large, powerful demon as mine because he was mine. No matter our history, no matter our sides, he was my Chosen, and nothing could change that… not even me.

  However, I didn’t want to change it. No one had ever made me feel the way Wrath did. He’d protected me, he cherished me, and he’d stake his claim on me repeatedly tonight. And I’d loved every second of it.

  As my fangs pierced his flesh, something inside me shifted, and I knew this was so right. In his arms, I’d found my home. If one day our differences destroyed us, then so be it. We may always stand on the opposite side of things, but we were meant to be together.

  I cleaved to him as he crushed me against his chest. He plunged into me one more time, and I felt his cock pulsating inside me as we came together.

  Cradling me, he stayed within me as he rolled to the side. I rested my hand over his thundering heart as I nuzzled against him. I’d never cuddled up to anyone in my lifetime, but though he remained within me, I couldn’t get close enough to him.

  His fingers skimmed my back as he kept his other arm locked around my wrist. It took a couple of minutes before my breathing slowed and the tremors from my last orgasm eased. Gradually, my heart returned to its regular beat as I traced the muscles in his chest.

  I expected regret over my actions to creep in, but it didn’t. I’d made my choice, and like so many other choices in my life, I would live with it. I hoped it didn’t blow up in my face or get anyone I loved killed.

  Lifting my head, I smiled as I gazed down at him. My jaw dropped when his eyes met mine, and I blinked as I tried to understand if what I was seeing was real. But no matter how often I blinked, his eye color remained a striking, royal blue color that stood out vividly from the shadows surrounding him.

  He gave me a sexy smile as he tapped underneath my chin. “I know I’m gorgeous, but you don’t have to drool.”

  I would have laughed if I wasn’t so busy trying to understand what happened. “Your eyes are blue.”

  He started to shake his head, but I shifted so he slid out of me and sat up on the bed. I pointed at the dusty mirror hanging above the dresser across from us. “Your eyes are blue, Wrath. Look in the mirror.”

  He hesitated before rising and walking over to the mirror. He stared at his reflection for a minute before his fingers rose and he touched the skin beneath his eyes. His brow furrowed as he rested his hands on the dresser and leaned closer.

  Wrath

  As I stared at my reflection, bits and pieces of forgotten memory floated across my mind. There was a time, back before wielding my power over others was the only thing I found any pleasure in doing, when I would glimpse myself in the eyes of another or a shiny hell stone, and blue eyes would stare back at me.

  I couldn’t recall when that was, but I was at most a few hundred years old when it occurred. Fragments of that time drifted through my mind, and I dimly recalled a man who was carefree and happy—a man whose power hadn’t consumed him yet.

  However, it was so long ago I’d forgotten about his blue eyes—my blue eyes—until now.

  My gaze fell on Bale’s marks on my neck. As I gazed at them, I realized she’d done more than mark me as hers; her bite had brought back that forgotten happiness and the part of me that my
wrath eventually destroyed. However, as I watched, the blue faded away and black seeped back into my eyes.

  “Wrath?” Bale asked. “What’s going on?”

  I turned away from the mirror to face her. She sat on the end of the bed with her hands in her lap and her fiery hair cascading around her. Returning to her, I brushed the hair back from her face and bent to kiss her.

  “You have awakened a long-dead part of me,” I whispered against her lips.

  She pulled back. “What does that mean?”

  “There was a time, before the monotony of Hell and my powers took control of me, when I was… happy and different.”

  “But then…?”

  “Time changes all things, some for the better, some for the worse, but it is guaranteed to change everything it encounters, and since none of us can avoid it, it will mold us all in one way or another.”

  “And it changed you how?”

  I shrugged as I ran my fingers through her silken hair. “Some would say for the better, some would say for the worse, but it changed me into who I’m meant to be. I never could have remained a happy man with the amount of wrath residing inside me.”

  “So, what does it mean that your eyes were briefly blue again?”

  “It means time is changing me again, and for the first time in more millennia than I can recall, I am happy again.” Her mouth fell open again, and once more I tapped beneath her chin to close it. “Don’t let that go to your head.”

  She gave me a sexy smile as she edged further back on the bed. Her hair fell from my hand as she hooked a finger, spread her legs, and beckoned me toward her.

  “Haven’t you had enough?” I asked.

  “Have you?” she asked and glanced pointedly at my stiffening cock.

  “Never.”

  “Then let’s make those eyes blue again.”

  To my surprise, I laughed as I climbed onto the bed and crawled toward her.