bedeviled & beyond 01 - bedeviled & beguiled (24 page)

Before I could pry my poor eyes open, a deep, cool voice assailed me from a few feet away. “Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.”

I rolled over onto my back so the tickly stuff couldn’t reach my nostrils and groaned as the contents of my head slammed against the back of my cranium. I could hear breathing from several places in the room and was suddenly struck with the desire to pull something over my face and play dead. Maybe the things in the room around me didn’t like food that was already dead.

With a heroic effort of will I managed to pry first one and then the other eye open and focus them in the direction of the voice. A blurry image of dark hair and golden skin danced among the pinpricks of colored light for a moment until my eyes managed to focus, finally, onto a very jaunty male package, dancing around behind and under a large slab of black marble.

Long, muscular legs were splayed carelessly to showcase the inviting package at their juncture. The legs and package were as nature had intended them. But not as I would have preferred them to be.

I forced myself into a sitting position so I could look at Nerul’s face instead of his naked package, not that I hadn’t enjoyed the view from the floor, but I try real hard not to be that kind of girl. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you to dress for company, your Highness?”

He laughed, his black eyes twinkling enticingly. “I always choose my dress very carefully according to the company I’m receiving, lovely halfling.”

“I was afraid of that.” I sat with my head drooping between my knees until the wave of dizziness and nausea passed. Sweat poured down my face and I found that I was gulping for air. With my head pointed toward the floor I suddenly realized what I was lying on.

With a gasp of disgust, I recognized the “carpet” beneath my butt. It was a multicolored patchwork of black, red, yellow and brown. Here and there a silver patch reflected the bright overhead lighting like fire. The patchwork was thick and soft and of varying lengths and textures. As I examined it in horror, it started to flutter as if it had been caught in a gentle breeze. I shrieked and leaped off the floor. The stuff beneath my feet instantly became more agitated, moving in a discordant dance that almost gave voice to the horrendous cruelty which had gone into making it.

“Holy shit! This is human hair!”

Nerul laughed. He got up from behind his marble desk and walked around to stand in front of me. For the first time I noticed he was wearing a long, deep green velvet robe along with his package. The robe hung open on either side of his body, swept back by his hands, which, like his fingers were long and tapered. The ends of his fingers sparkled in the brassy light and appeared to be neatly clipped and polished. The almost feminine hands rested on golden hips that were just the slightest bit rounded like a woman’s. I tried really hard not to look at the thing below the hips that was definitely not like a woman and which seemed to be waving at me in a sickening imitation of the hair carpet.

“Isn’t it wonderful? I know of no other like it in the world.”

I snorted and forced my eyes away from all things waving. “I assume you’re talking about the carpet.”

He grinned at me, the twinkle deepening. “Of course, lovely Astra, what else would I be referring to?”

“Yeah. What else my ass.” Casting around for somewhere to plant my eyes so that I didn’t have to look at human hair carpets or insistently waving packages, I realized that, aside from Nerul and myself, there were four other creatures in the room.

The lesser devils were dressed in the guard uniform of Nerul’s court, which consisted mainly of a knee-length black tunic of some kind of rough material. The guard’s tunics sported gold braid on the shoulders and were clasped around their thick, red bodies by a wide, black belt with a pentagram shaped buckle. Each of the guards had a knife sheath hanging from the belt of his tunic and, from the top of each sheath protruded a huge, intricately carved ivory handle that looked like it could be part of a sword from the size of it.

The guards were stationed two at each door. Four guards plus Nerul — only five of them and one of me. Not bad odds if I were at my best.

I forced my attention back to my “host”. “It must have taken you quite a while to assemble it.”

He shook his head and stepped closer to me. It took all of my will not to step back. “Not all that long really. I have many enemies.”

“Oh I don’t doubt that.” I narrowed my eyes at him as he moved closer still. I was becoming increasingly aware of how happy he was to see me and, for the first time, I began to fear for something other than my life. I decided it was time to wrest control of the situation away from the dark world’s version of Lord Godiva.

Putting my hands up in front of me, palms out, I scowled at him as fiercely as I could. “I’m not interested.”

He stopped moving toward me and cocked his slick, black head. “Not interested in what, Astra?”

The way he said my name was a caress. It smoothed down my body like a cool phantom fingertip, making me shiver. “Well, actually, in whatever you had in mind. I don’t appreciate being clubbed over the head and dragged here. I also don’t appreciate waking up to find myself lying on the hair of a lot of dead people and then being waved at by naked male parts. It’s a little...disconcerting to say the least.”

Nerul’s lips formed into a soft pout. “Yes, your abduction was most unfortunate. I have already punished my overzealous messengers for their unacceptable behavior. Please accept my sincerest apologies for their brutish treatment of you.”

He grinned at me like a child. I wasn’t sure how to handle the speech. It certainly wasn’t what I had expected. Finally, I just shrugged my acceptance of his apology. “Can you please put that away? I know you guys are real comfortable with nudity, but I’m not.”

Nerul laughed and, rather reluctantly I thought, allowed the robe to drop from his hips so that it almost covered everything. In any event, I wasn’t going to talk about it anymore, I’d made my point about his...uhmmm...point.

I had about ten seconds to feel relief before he was on me. I remember reading something in my books about how members of the Royal Court could move at superhuman speed, like the vampires of ancient fiction. Still, I wasn’t expecting to find him standing suddenly just mere centimeters from me. One second he was a few feet away and the next his breath was hot on my face and his cold, black eyes were drilling into mine.

Before I could even react I was slammed onto my back again and the gentle movement of the carpet beneath us swelled to gale-like roils. I wasn’t sure what terrified me more, the royally evil thing on top of me, or the disgustingly bewitched thing dancing beneath me. I wasn’t going to be given time to make a decision on that.

Nerul ground himself against me and laughed softly at the look of horror on my face. “Do not worry, lovely Astra, you will enjoy the experience of mating with me. You and I are more alike than you can guess.”

Before I could stop myself I said it. “You can just bite me, Nerul. We’re so not doing this.” I tensed immediately and felt my eyes grow wide. Shit. I really shouldn’t have said that.

Nerul’s laugh rumbled against my chest and sent shivers through my body. “Yes. I will definitely have to do that. But before the finale, let’s get to the foreplay. Foreplay is my favorite part.”

Casting about for something devastatingly scary to say that would get him to stop, all I could come up with was, “Well at least you understand the importance of pleasing your partner. I wouldn’t expect that from a leading member of the dark world.”

Nerul’s eyes darkened but he chuckled. “Oh Astra. I assure you, your pleasure is of utmost concern to me. Second only to my own of course.” Then he stuck out an absurdly long red tongue and ran it wetly across my cheek. Everywhere his tongue touched, my skin began to burn and pulse. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it was definitely disturbing. I could swear I heard a sizzling sound. He moaned, grinding his groin harder against me. Bruising me.

That was when I became horrifyingly aware that my nightgown had ridden up above my knees and there was nothing between my flesh and his flesh but my resourcefulness. And as my mind began to cloud and my body began to react traitorously to his attentions, I wasn’t at all sure there was anything at all between us.

I was working really hard to move past the magic he was using on my brain when his tongue found its way to my neck and worked its way down to the throbbing spot at the juncture of my neck and shoulder. I was feeling the panic that comes from being at the mercy of something delicious and evil at the same time, when Nerul’s body gave a surprised jerk and he glared at me. His eyes were black spears on my face, his teeth bared. The magic fog quickly evaporated from my head and I was on instant alert. Somehow the play had gone from fore to cat with mouse. Where I’d been, only seconds earlier, fearing for my chastity, I was now looking death in the face. Shit. I really needed to consider some different career options.

A career in de-radiating nuclear refuse was looking really good.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

And your Little Dog Too!

Quickly she did find herself, on a feather bed in Hell,

In flame the Phoenix thrives and grows, but young ladies fare not well.

“You scheming bitch!” He roared. I sensed rather than saw the bodyguards moving closer and my heart stepped up its SOS in my chest. I concentrated on meeting his venomous glare with a calm front, trying not to let the fear into my eyes. Members of the dark world feed on fear. It excites them. The last thing I wanted at that moment was for Nerul’s excitement level to increase.

“You let him mark you!” I simply looked up at him, frowning slightly in feigned confusion. Just as suddenly as he’d deposited me on the disgusting hair carpet, Nerul leaped off me and began to pace the room angrily. “He’s beaten me again!” Stalking from side to side with Hell’s fire on his countenance, Nerul began mumbling to himself. All I could hear were the words, “He could still...there must be something...I won’t let this happen...”

I took the opportunity to scurry to my feet, pulling my very un-heroine-like fuzzy pink nightgown back down over my knees. As I gained my feet he flew at me. I backtracked quickly until I came up hard against the uncompromising bulk of one of the guards. Fear and a feeling of being trapped made my temper flair. “Back off, Nerul. Who the hell do you think you are? First you beat me over the head and drag me down here, then you nearly rape me, now you’re pissed off at me because one of your own kind mind-raped me before you could do it.”

Surprisingly this seemed to cool him down a bit and the fierce glare faded from his golden face to be replaced by a questioning look. “You were marked unwillingly?”

I tried to keep my face from turning a guilty red as I responded, after all, I wasn’t entirely sure that what Dialle had done was rape. “Of course. You don’t think I’d let one of you touch me by choice do you?”

He stared at me for a really long moment. His emotions tangled across his near-perfect features as he appeared to be weighing what I’d said. Then he smiled at me in a way that made me think I might have made a fatal mistake.

Glancing toward his waiting guard, Nerul said, “Take her to the room that’s been prepared for her. And if she even looks like she’s going to try using those powers of hers, knock her over the head again.” So much for his “sincere” apology of only moments before. He put a hand under my chin and pulled my face toward his. I shivered and tried to pull away as he ran his tongue from my chin to the tip of my nose. Then he let go of my face and smiled at me. Somehow the tongue thing was less invasive than that smile. I longed to wipe my face but I was determined not to give him the satisfaction.

“You can’t keep me here.”

He cocked his head and laughed. “Can’t I, lovely Astra? We’ll see.” He signaled to the nearest guard. “Take her, I need time to think about what is to be done next. Dialle’s perfidy will cause us some difficulty I think, but our plans can still be salvaged if what she says is true.” He turned away and then, almost as an afterthought turned back. With an arrogant wave of his hand toward my very uninspiring attire he sneered, “And get rid of that damned thing. Have the Princess give you something more...suitable for her to wear.”

I wanted to argue with him but what could I say? My fuzzy, pink nightie didn’t exactly fit into my current surroundings. Maybe something in basic black silk and blood red would do nicely.

The guard jerked me around and pushed me through a door in the far wall, just behind Nerul’s room-sized marble desk. With some relief I left Nerul behind in that ghastly room. He was back to pacing and muttering to himself. At least he was too busy to torture me. Things were looking up.

I was “escorted” through the winding, dimly lighted caverns of Nerul’s court by three surly, red-faced devil guards, one on either side of me and one at my back (well at least Nerul wasn’t underestimating me anymore). The three musketeers led me to a room that was situated deep in the bowels of the earth. It had only one door and no windows. The walls were probably made of rock but they were hidden and softened behind long damask draperies of a rich burgundy color. The only furniture in the room was a huge four poster bed, which dominated the center of the space, and several comfortable looking cushions that were strewn about on the floor. After my experience in Nerul’s “office”, or whatever you’d call it, I quickly determined that the carpet was a normal, if excessively plush looking carpet of a rich golden color.

The bed was covered in white silk, and the same silk was draped over and hung down in soft folds from the bed’s canopy. The bed draperies pooled in aesthetically pleasing puddles around each stout mahogany leg of the bed. Smaller silk cushions of many shapes and sizes, in colors of deep burgundy and rich gold, were tossed with careless elegance upon the bed and around it to form a kind of sexual playground for the room’s unfortunate inhabitants.

Wonderful. Even Hell has a good decorator. So how come my own place was decorated in early lazy and traditional hate to shop?