Awakening the Demon's Queen (23 page)

Kindara hesitated. “You know your uncle will
never allow him to hurt you, baby. And the demon and I are only
going to be a portal away. I will be coming back here nearly every
day. I can just do my research best from Relaklonos.”

“
And you’ll be with him.” Ji
bit her bottom lip, a habit she’d had as a small child. “Do you
think you love him, then?”

“
Do I love him? I never
thought I’d ever be able to say I loved another man besides Iavius,
but I do love the demon. It’s different, though. With Iavius there
was the understanding that the goddess put us together, that we
were meant to be together. We both had that reassurance that we
were put together for a reason. Our love started as that connection
and grew. With the damned demon, it was a way to forget at first.
Then he...blindsided me with how important he became so completely.
I do love him, Ji. And not just because of the babe.” She touched
her own abdomen lightly. Her son was in there, hers and Rathan’s.
“Though there is a strong connection because of the babe. I love
him because he can make me laugh again even when I want to hit him
for being so...male.”

“
I want you to be happy,
mother.”

“
I know you do. And I think
I can be. But not at the expense of you.” Kindara sank to the bed
beside her daughter. “I love you so much.”

“
I know you do. But I’m a
grown woman. Your happiness shouldn’t be at the expense of mine.
I’ve got other things to think about--like what I am going to name
these babes and which suite we are going to live in. Mine is too
small for two babes.” Jierra’s words were lighter, but the
confusion was still clear behind them. “Go to him, mother. I’ll be
ok. And I have Uncle Cormac to scare the big bad wolf
away.”

“
Yes, you do. I love you,
baby.”

“
I love you,
too.”

****

She had spoken with the two people that
mattered the most and they supported her. She had the bag she was
taking with her back to Relaklonos slung over one shoulder. She was
ready. Now she just had to get the big Warrior demon to take her to
his brother.

She found in the gardens, watching Dhar
Rydere and Aodhan engage in a battle of mock swordplay. Aureliana
sat on a bench padded with extra pillows a few yards away. Auri
seemed to be ignoring the big demon, though his daughter sat at her
feet coloring a picture. Kindara stopped by her friend.

“
Auri.”

“
Kinney. Going somewhere?”
Aureliana smirked. She’d always been able to read
Kindara.

“
You know I am. How are you
feeling?”

“
Like someone stabbed me
with a six foot sword. Other than that, pretty good. Planning on
making a drastic change?”

“
Of location. It doesn’t
seem so drastic to me now. I need the warrior demon.”

“
Good luck. He seems to be
remarkably unavailable for everything except blood and
bludgeoning.” Auri ruffled the dark curls on the demon child’s
head. “Occasional play-time, now and then. Not much
else.”

“
You volunteering to change
that?” Kindara knew Auri’s soft spot. She had raised a few
foundlings over the years—humans, mostly. It did not surprise
Kindara that Auri had taken the girl under her wing while Cerridwen
and Renakletos were in Gaia.

“
While I can. Are you sure
this is what you want to do?”

“
Yes. I just need someone to
open the gates.”

“
And that’s where big bubba
comes in. Good luck with that.” Auri smiled a somewhat sad smile.
“And with your second chance.”

Kindara hurt for her friend. She knew Auri
wanted nothing more than to find her own Rajni. “You’ll find him,
Auri. When you’re supposed to.”

“
Hmmm. Will I? I’m beginning
to doubt that, Kin. But anyway...what’s the next step?” She was
still in pain; Kindara could see it in her eyes. “You going demon
hunting?”

“
Yes.” Kindara nodded,
attention turning toward the warrior demon. “It’s been long
enough.”

“
I’ll say,” Auri adjusted
her shoulder when the little girl climbed carefully into her lap.
Kindara started across the garden. “Hey, Kinney!”

Kindara turned back toward her. “Yes?”

“
I love you, kid! See he
treats you just right!”

Renakletos was studying the movements of the
two sparring men. He looked up and stood when Kindara approached.
He half-bowed. “My lady.”

“
Take me to him.”

Renakletos’s face went blank, calculating. “I
cannot do that. My king and brother forbade it.”

“
Don’t tell me you always do
everything he orders. I know that’s a lie.” Kindara pulled in a
deep breath and tightened her hand on the pack over her shoulder.
This was the last hurdle to her plan. “I’m going back to him. And
you’re going to take me.”

“
No, I am not. I
cannot.”

“
Don’t tell me you won’t. I
know you can.” Kindara stared up at the giant man, shifted to block
the path he stood on. “Take me to him.”

He started to speak. “I cannot.”

“
Yes, you can. You
will.”

“
No, pet. He said he cannot.
Not that he will not.” A voice came from behind Kindara and she
stiffened. This had not been a part of her plan. For all her
bravado, turning to face him felt like one of the hardest things
she had ever done.

Rathan stood between her brother and his,
dressed in his customary black. His horns were proudly displayed,
his stance arrogant. But he was unsure. She could see it in his
eyes. She stepped toward him. “Demon.”

“
Pet. Is that all you have
to say to me after these long weeks?”

“
What do you want me to
say?” Kindara kept walking until she stood less than a yard from
him. She was so focused on him it barely registered when Cormac and
Renakletos slipped away.

“
That you have missed me
some? That you dreamed of me every night? That you need my touch
and so much more?” He lifted his arms to her, but still Kindara
hesitated. “Kindara?”

“
All of those things.” She
lifted her right hand, wrapped it around his left wrist. Her
fingers twisted in the black silk. She just touched him. “I have
missed you.”

“
Not nearly as much as I
missed you.” He jerked her off her feet, lifting her until her
mouth was level with his. “It was pure hell to be in another realm
without you.”

Kindara wove her fingers through the dark
hair wild around his head. “You shouldn’t have sent me away, then.
You should have trusted me by your side. That’s what’s going to
have to happen, demon. If we are to make a go of this. None of this
over-protective ridiculousness. Not anymore. I’m an equal partner
in this, got me?”

“
I have got you, pet. And I
will not be letting you go.” His lips met hers.

Kindara wrapped her legs around his waist and
held on as he carried her into the resort. He carried her past her
brother and his where they waited inside the lobby; past Dhar
Rydere and his Emily. Passed Jierra and Mickey. Theo and Bronwen.
Face buried in his shoulder, against his racing pulse, Kindara
barely saw those watching them.

They did not matter all that mattered was
that the damned demon had returned for her.

Together they could begin living again.

*******

*******

Now Available
from

Lost River Lit
and
Calle J.
Brookes…

Cormac Jareth despised the human Leo Taniss;
hated him for the pain he had called his sister and family...how,
then, could he introduce his destined mate to those he loved,
knowing she was Taniss’s granddaughter?

Chapter One

Her hand trailed through the warm water,
stirring the raspberry bath beads in until they foamed. Raspberry
was her favorite smell, tart and tangy and strong. The water was a
bit on the hot side. Good. A hot, fragrant bath was what she needed
after the day she had had. Her grandfather was a thief. He’d stolen
billions of dollars from the family company and invested in a
secret laboratory on the outskirts of Denver. He’d stolen from the
family. How could he do that? And now the funding for her research
was in serious jeopardy. Funding for everything was in serious
jeopardy.

She and her cousins Mal, Mickey, and Emily
had spent the last two days trying to salvage the budget before
tomorrow’s family meeting.

It was her job as a physician to review
Grandfather’s research to determine what about the lab in Denver
was so vital that he’d funnel sixteen billion dollars there over a
period of twenty years.

A furry head nudged her hand and Josey rubbed
the silky black and white fur. Free sensed her unease. The Border
collie always did. Her fingers sank into the thick fur and Josey
murmured reassuring words to the dog that she herself couldn’t
hear. The dog made a noise against her hand, a sound Josey felt
rather than heard. What would it be like to hear the sound of a dog
barking again? She thought she remembered what it sounded like, but
she’d lost ninety percent of her hearing at the age of six. There
were many sounds she’d forgotten.

That was one reason why she felt other
sensations so strongly. Sensations like hot, raspberry-scented
bathwater soaking into her skin. Such things provided her solace on
nights like this one. She felt the thunder as it shook the small
two-bedroom bungalow she shared with her younger sister on the
north edge of her grandfather’s property. They all lived there on
the land somewhere—her, her sister, her cousins, aunts and uncles.
And Josey enjoyed it, though the family tended to be a bit
smothering where she was concerned.

Steam rose from the bath and Josey closed her
eyes as she inhaled. She released the zipper on the trousers she
wore and dropped them to the rug beside the tub. The blouse took
seconds to remove. She dropped it next to the trousers; she’d pick
them up when she was done. Now she just needed to relax and forget
of things for a while.

****

Cormac Jareth watched the woman for several
long moments from his place in the shadows as she soaked in the
tub, eyes closed and head thrown back. Despite her ancestry,
despite them being of different species, his body reacted quickly
to the sight of platinum blonde hair and a delicate feminine body.
She was tall for a human woman, but still short for his kind. Her
curves were smaller than he normally preferred, but her breasts
looked sweet. Her ass was just rounded enough to say female. Her
hair was completely straight and long, but she’d pulled it up off
her neck before sinking into the water.

He’d never envied water before, but this
sweet-smelling bath got to touch her everywhere.

It was almost a pity he’d come to kidnap her.
To take her back with him and kill her. He would far rather take
the time to savor this little human morsel. He smiled as he stepped
from the shadows and spoke. “Hello, little one. Pity I cannot join
you in that tub.”

He expected a scream, a rush to cover herself
with a towel. Even demands to know who he was and what he
wanted.

He got nothing. He’d taken easy control of
the canine in the corner. The small dog sat watching him with a
glazed, if unworried, expression. It was an ability he’d held for
nearly six hundred years—as well as the ability to cloak his
presence from humans, the capturing of creatures’ minds and he did
so effortlessly. He tried speaking again. “Ignoring me will not
make me leave you be. I am taking you with me. Then we shall feast
together.”

Her eyes didn’t open. It gave him pause. Had
she not heard him? He snapped his fingers, the sound cracking in
the silence. Still nothing.

He slipped into her head effortlessly,
getting tangled in a complex feminine brain within half a second.
There were no sounds, just stillness that he had encountered
before. Deaf, then.

Interesting.

He settled in her mind for a few moments,
learning of her what he could. She was Jocelyn, daughter of the
youngest son Jason. A doctor, educated at Johns Hopkins. She worked
for Taniss Industries like all the rest of the Taniss filth.

He’d never despised anyone the way he did Leo
Taniss and his issue. The older human was responsible for the
deaths of thousands of Dardaptoans. The ancient vampiric race had
few enemies amongst the humans, but those with the name Taniss
topped that list.

Leo Taniss had taken Dardaptoans to his lab
in Denver and ran horrific and deadly experiments on them. Most
died; only three out of the known thousands taken had
survived—Cormac’s only sister, her brother-in-law, and his adopted
niece, Jierra. Ji had been only a three-week-old babe when Cormac
had found her lying among the rest of her dead family. Two years
after he’d found his sister Kindara rocking the dead body of her
Rajni, or mate, Iavius. Iavius’s teenaged sister lay beside him,
gone forever. Erastine had been a beautiful child with a bright
future. No more.

And it was all that sociopath Leo Taniss’s
doing.

Tonight Cormac would wreak his vengeance upon
the man’s granddaughter. His friends—Rydere, Aodhan, and
Theodoric—were doing the same against three other Taniss
grandchildren. The women would disappear forever, and then they
would take Leo Taniss to show him the tortures the women would have
endured before finally being drained dry at Dardaptoan hands.

Taniss blood feeding Dardaptoan. It was only
fitting.