bedeviled & beyond 02 - bedeviled & bedazzled (29 page)

Strong arms wrapped around me and a jolt of heated power saturated the hand that was glued to the knob by energy. I came loose in a shower of sparks and my knees buckled. Sagging weakly to the floor, I dragged Emo with me.

I lay there panting and shivering with Emo hovering over me, his golden face dark with concern. “Astra, what the hell just happened? Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Just give me a minute.”

Emo stayed close until I sat up and then he pulled me to my feet. He kept an arm around my waist until we were both sure the weakness had passed.

“What happened, Astra?”

I looked at the door handle and frowned. “This has happened to me before, when I was hunting Prince Nille. I didn’t like it then either.”

He jerked me around to face him. “
What
happened?”

“I had a vision. But it was more than a vision. It was like I was in his skin...”

“Whose skin?”

“King Dialle’s. He was hanging from the wall in my father’s dungeon and somebody was drilling a hole in my—I mean his—chest with a stream of power. My father healed the hole and that hurt almost as much as the drilling had. Then my father was out of sight again and...” I stopped and looked at Emo, feeling ice crystals forming on my spine, “Holy shit, Emo! My father was torturing the king.”

Emo frowned at me, doubt clearly visible in his black eyes. “Are you sure, Astra, that doesn’t sound right.”

I shook my head and dropped my butt into the nearest chair. “No. It isn’t right. It can’t be.”

Emo looked back at the door. “What should we do about
that
?”

I followed his gaze and shook my head. “I’m not touching that thing again. You do it.”

Emo walked over and grasped the handle. It opened right up to reveal an empty room. I went through the door with him, taking care not to touch anything and was perplexed to find no magic residue that I recognized in the room. It was a simple conference room with a large table in the center and several chairs arranged around it.

We left the house and walked toward the Viper.

Emo leaned against the vehicle and stretched wearily. “According to your vision he’s at your father’s house.

I frowned. We’d been through the house from top to bottom and the king hadn’t been there. “He’s not there.”

“Something’s not right.”

I looked at him, “You think?”

That was when I noticed a thick, dark fog moving along the ground around our feet.

Emo’s gaze followed mine. “What the hell is that?”

I didn’t know but I sure as hell didn’t want to find out either. “Get in the Viper, Emo.”

He continued to stare at the fog. “It’s kind of purple, that’s weird.”

I smacked his arm. “Get the hell in the Viper, Emo. Now!”

I didn’t wait for him to do what I’d told him. Flinging myself into the Viper I pulled the door shut behind me manually and, as soon as I felt Emo’s butt hit the seat next to mine I screamed, “Seal and climb.”

The fog surged over and around the Viper until it obscured everything outside the view ports. The Viper’s nose tipped up in an attempt to rise off the ground but the engine sputtered and died and the Viper dropped heavily onto its sleek belly on the ground. The impact jarred my teeth and pounded a grunt out of Emo.

It was then that I noticed the fog was inside the vehicle. “Get the hell out, Emo!”

His voice in my head was slurry.
Get the hell in, Emo, get the hell out, Emo...make up your damn mind, Astra.

He turned to me, his eyes already looking dazed and incoherent.

“I said...” the thought I’d been trying to express drifted away and my legs and arms felt like lead as the fog saturated the interior of the Viper. The last thing I remember before I fell away from consciousness was Emo’s head hitting the view port as he passed out.

Then everything went black.

~SC~

Voices droned in the distance, tickling insistently at my ears like bees. I wove the sound into my dreams and slept on. I dreamed I was slime wrestling a purple slug monster and fell into the slime, taking the slug monster with me. I pushed as hard as I could against the squishy purple chest, but my hands just kept sinking into it and getting tangled. No that wasn’t right, you can’t get tangled in purple slug monster flesh. And why was it so silky? Before I could get my mind around that question, the slug opened its pincers and a long, warty tongue slid through to slither down my cheek.

It should have been disgusting but somehow it made me all tingly. And the monster smelled good too. Really good, like...

My eyes flew open and I was staring into Emo’s midnight eyes, my fingers tangled in his silky hair. Having already left a warm, tingly trail down my face, his tongue was stroking my neck, toward my ear. He closed his soft lips over my earlobe and nibbled before drawing it into his warm mouth and sucking it.

“Holy shit!” I tried to push him away and sit up but he just grabbed my hands and held them above my head, grinding his rigid lower regions against my most sensitive area. For the briefest moment in time I forgot the reason I needed to get out from under him and closed my eyes, moaning under the multiple, yummy assaults on my body. A throbbing pleasure radiated from the place where his hard length pressed against my body, drawing my thought processes into sensual oblivion along with my pleasure center. My stomach jumped in excitement. My lips were tingling where they’d met his and my nipples stood at rigid attention like good little galactic soldiers.

Then I remembered why the current situation was bad, bad, bad and my eyes flew open again. “Emo!”

He murmured an incomprehensible response and released my earlobe to kiss his way down my throat. Before I could stop myself I moaned and arched toward him. He growled low in his throat and took my breast into his hot mouth, sucking it gently through my soft sweater.

Sweater? My eyes flew open again and I looked down. Oh thank the Big Guy I was still fully dressed.

But not for long at the rate we were going.

I struggled to get my hands free and finally managed to pull one hand from his grasp. grabbing his ponytail, I yanked it hard.

His head came up and I looked into a pair of dazed and feverish eyes. I’d seen that look before.

Shit
! “Emo! Snap out of it, you’re under a spell.”

He grinned lazily and jerked out of my grip. A strand of his beautiful hair came away with a tearing sound. I winced but Emo didn’t seem to notice.

He tugged my sweater up and initiated a warm, wet journey up my belly toward territory that was under the jurisdiction of the Astra Q Phelps sexual permissions committee of one—that would be me.

“Emo stop!” I tried to push him away again but with only one hand it was impossible. Deciding I didn’t have a choice I stopped struggling and concentrated on building my power to use against him.

The sound of chanting grew in intensity, cluing me in that we weren’t alone. A quick glance around told me we were on the altar in the clearing where I’d watched Raoul vanquish the fire demons. Although I could only see indistinct shapes just beyond the circle of light created by a huge, smoking fire in the center of the clearing, I had a clear perception that we were surrounded.

Visualizing the tiny flame at the core of my power, I concentrated on growing it. It doubled and then doubled again until it was a respectable blaze, but still not big enough to do anything with.

That was when Emo’s warm, insistent mouth made it into the more mountainous regions of Astra Q Phelps territory. His lips closed over a taut nipple through the silk cami that served as my only undergarment and I gasped, losing focus on the energy I’d managed to gather. I moaned helplessly, my head thrashing back and forth on the hard rock. Against my best intentions, I arched to give him better access to my breast.

The piddling power flame I’d managed to draw died a sudden death as another kind of heat consumed my body. I was wrapping my legs around his hips, welcoming his probing fingers under my skirt when a niggling memory broke through the sexual haze.

I saw again the back of a sleek, dark head and long, lean body lying over me, pleasuring me as I moaned and begged for more. I remembered the chanting voices surrounding us and...

Angel’s tears...

Then I recalled with a stomach lurching clarity what had happened in that prophetic dream when the current activities had been consummated.

Holy frunkin’ gargoyle toes!

Like ice water flung onto my overheated body, that thought cleared the sexual haze from my mind. I reached for my power and threw it outward. Emo’s body rose off mine a couple of inches. He was far too gone to react, except to clutch me harder, pulling me halfway off with him. I started pounding on his back in an effort to roust him from the spell but he was single minded in his sensual assault on my body.

Black magic coated the air and I realized the witches were using powerful magic to keep Emo enthralled. Briefly wondering why, I was distracted by a ripping sound and cool night air bathed my nether regions. I screamed in frustration and felt my daemon hickey pulse and sting.

Oh shit! Dialle!

The first pulse was a small one. But the next one threw sparks into the air and the third one blasted Emo off my chest.

The chanting around me stopped and the resulting silence was almost painful with expectancy.

I threw myself off the altar and into a defensive stance. “Okay, you people have pissed me off in a big way.” Flinging out my hands, I threw a power blanket toward the shadows where I knew the witches stood. I spread the power thin and wide so that it covered a large area but wouldn’t cause too much damage to any one person. The energy blasted away from me with a very satisfying sizzling sound, followed by a single yelp of pain. It appeared that all but one curious soul had skedaddled before I flung my anger-filled energy at them.

Several air vehicles zoomed past over my head as they made a quick getaway.

Emo was sitting on the altar looking dazed.

Dialle was standing next to him and he didn’t look happy. “You are lucky I recognized the spell, pretender, or I’d have extinguished you on the spot.

Emo jumped to his feet and sneered, “Afraid I’ll accomplish what you haven’t been able to do, false Prince? You might have forced your mark on her, but you certainly haven’t won her heart.”

The two devils stood nose to nose, power and anger wafting off of them in waves.

I gave a moment’s thought to jumping in the Viper and running away. But being an extremely brave halfling— or possibly a bit stupid—I confronted them instead.

“Okay, okay break it up boys. I stepped in between them, facing Dialle. Emo jumped away from me as if I were a jolt of electricity. “This was not Emo’s fault, Dialle and you know it. We need to work together if we’re going to figure out what’s going on.”

Dialle’s eyes roiled with colors as a virtual storm of rage flowed through him. The air around him was so hot beads of sweat formed between my breasts. My instincts told me to step away, but I knew I had to stand up to him or there would be hell to pay later. Literally.

With my own storm brewing, I waited for Dialle to cool down. Finally he glanced away from me and the temperature began to drop. I kept my sigh of relief as small and undetectable as possible. “Good. Now here’s what we’re gonna do...”

Dialle reached out a hand and grabbed my wrist. I managed to yell, “No!” before we were locked in time and space.

We landed in Dialle’s quarters at the Royal Court.

“Damn you, Dialle! I hate when you do that!”

He turned and stalked away. “You stink of him.”

Now that just pissed me off. “How dare you, Dialle? Where the hell were you when they snatched us? Why didn’t you do something to help instead of getting all pissed off once the damage was done?”

He turned back to me, the storm still raging in his eyes, “I
did
help, Astra! That’s why you’re standing here now instead of lying naked and plundered on that altar!”

“Plundered!” I didn’t know my voice could reach that octave.

I’m coming, Astra. Hang on.

I jumped at the voice in my head and then tried to look normal. Which at that exact moment meant I needed to look outraged and pissed off. Not hard to pull off since those are two of my more natural things.

“And don’t forget you shut me out,” he added. You masked your movements from me for two days. You’re lucky I found you at all.”

Well, that was technically true. My face gained a slightly pink color. But I wasn’t going to take the whole blame for it. “If you hadn’t tried to do violence to me I wouldn’t have had to go into hiding!” I shrieked back.

He threw his dark head back and roared, shaking the walls and breaking small objects around the room.

I stepped into a defensive stance and pulled a power bubble around myself.

Dialle stalked away from me and started pacing the room.

I waited silently.

Finally he stopped pacing and looked at me. “Did you find my father?”

I couldn’t help it. As usual my smart mouth beat back my good sense and took the lead. “You mean after I helped my parents kidnap him?”

He strode toward me looking like he would kill me the old fashioned way, with his hands around my neck. I threw my hands up in preparation for battle.

He halted suddenly, swiping an elegant, golden hand over his face, and blew out a frustrated breath. “Damn it, Astra, you try my patience at every turn.”

A commotion sounded outside the door. There was an explosion, followed by the sound of someone getting thrown into the door.

Dialle started forward but I grabbed his arm. He looked at me.

“It’s Emo.”

Dialle jerked his arm from my grasp, swearing inventively. Intrigued, I mentally catalogued some of the words, figuring they might come in handy later.

The door blasted into the room and skidded across the floor. Leaping out of its way with a yelp, I watched it splinter against the far wall.

Emo followed the door’s skid marks into the room. He did not look happy.