bedeviled & beyond 05 - bedeviled & besmirched (23 page)

I held on and let the pleasure roll through me, embracing the feeling of his heated skin sliding against mine, and reveling in the scrape of hard flesh against raw, hungry skin. When his lips found mine again in a ravenous kiss, I gave him back the same intensity, my tongue dancing eagerly with his.

Making love to Dialle without magic was different. His taste was familiar, yet not. I recognized the feel of his sweat-slickened skin against mine, yet it had a novel feeling to it, exciting and fresh.

It was as if we were old souls discovering each other in a totally new environment.

When my body rolled over the sharp edge of release once again, it was so bright, so shiny, and so new that it brought tears to my eyes.

What we had was no magic-induced mating. It was not power generated lust. What Dialle and I shared in that bed was pure animal magnetism. It was hearts, and minds and physical bodies sharing a unique lust, driven by a common need.

Most of all, as Dialle screamed out my name and buried his seed deep within my body, I knew he did it not because it made his kingdom whole. He made love to me because he needed to...wanted to...craved it in that elemental way mankind had been aspiring to since the beginning of time.

And when we collapsed in each other’s arms, I knew that, wherever our futures took us...whatever the result of my new deformity...what Dialle and I had shared was real.

I would never doubt that again.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Tree House in the Shadows

Flick and Merriam sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g,

Too bad they’re about to feel the Shadows’ sting!

I was sliding my knives into my boots when Aubrey returned. I looked up and gave him a smile. “Thanks for giving me time to say goodbye.”

Aubrey frowned but said nothing. He crossed his hands before him and waited as I finished arming myself. My hands were slow and clumsy. Without my magic I felt clunky, as if I didn’t belong in my own skin. In addition to the physical issues, I was fighting guilt for what I was about to do. I’d promised Dialle I’d stay there, safe in the Court.

But I knew I had to do what I was about to do. I was doing it for him. I probably wouldn’t survive it, but it had to be done none-the-less. If Dialle got a whiff of it he’d try to stop me. So I couldn’t risk his finding out.

Deep down inside I was worried that Dialle wouldn’t survive a face-off with Crisanne. He was an extremely powerful devil. The most powerful of his kind. By all rights he should be able to best her easily. But I’d felt her terrible power. I was scared that she would do to him what she’d done to me. He wouldn’t survive losing his magic.

I barely had. In fact, I still wasn’t sure I would. But for the moment I had something to do that was more important than curling up in the fetal position and willing myself dead.

Grabbing one of the smaller swords from Dialle’s rack on the wall, I dropped the blade into a sheath I’d strapped across my back and glanced at Aubrey. “I’m ready.”

He lifted a hand toward me and I placed mine on his. As we entered the sphere of stillness, I mused that I would no longer be space shifting myself from place to place. I would once again be dependent on others to do it for me, as I’d been early in my magic building days.

It was one of the things I would miss least about my magic. Thinking about the time I’d shifted into a nasty, worm-headed demon, I did an internal shudder. I’d never been very good at it.

It was then that I realized I had once functioned quite well without magic. Before I met Dialle I hadn’t even known I could do the stuff I later learned to do. I’d depended instead on my wits, my speed and agility, and my skill with knife and sword.

While I suspected my untapped powers had given my physical skills an edge, I could get back to that place again. I could still slay demons. I just couldn’t be queen of the Royal Court of Dialle the Second.

The thought nearly broke my heart.

We landed in my office and I was surprised to see that it was very full. Darma had done a fine job of pulling together the people I’d worked with in the past and trusted.

Ralph and Bob were there. I gave them each a smile and they pulled me into a hug.

“We’ve got your back, Astra,” Bob told me.

Ralph touched my cheek with a slightly calloused finger and added, “Not just now, but later, when you come back to work.”

Tears threatened so I looked down, struggling to hold my emotions in check. “Thanks, guys.”

I glanced up at the sound of a throat clearing. Standing before me was the massive form of Captain Lee, a seven-foot-tall Venutian with triangular, yellow eyes and thick, white hair. He grinned. “You look like trouble.”

I laughed, the tears I’d been trying to hold back sliding from my eyes. It was one of the first things he’d ever said to me. “Ask Dr. Lee about Astra Q Phelps, she’ll tell you I’m okay.”

He enclosed me in a massive hug.

A long fingered hand touched my shoulder. Dr. Clovis Lee stood next to her soul mate, her triangular yellow-gold eyes filled with emotion. “I’ve already told him you’re going to be fine. He just wanted to see for himself.”

I extricated myself from the big bear of a man and hugged his mate. At six and a half feet, she towered over me too.

I’d worked side by side with the Venutian couple and several of their soldiers when Satan’s magic veil had been poisoning the Earth. It had been a violent and dangerous time, but I’d been happy to have them fighting alongside me. Nothing beat a Venutian soldier for intelligence or brutality.

Apparently loyalty was also one of their strengths.

“I’m really glad to see you and your men, Captain.” I nodded toward several extremely tall men dressed in ugly, brown uniforms standing against the back wall. They were armed with knives of all sizes on crisscrossing straps that wound around their torsos, legs and arms. “But, I don’t want to put you into any danger...”

Clovis Lee placed a long finger over my lips. “Nonsense. Just tell us what we need to do.”

I realized her powers would be especially useful. “The halfling we’re going up against is incredibly powerful. What she did to me...” My voice broke and I cleared my throat.

Clovis nodded. “I can tell you what she’s thinking before she even knows she’s thinking it. Then Captain Lee will hold her while you kick her ass.” She grinned at me until I laughed.

“You’ve been hanging around me too long,” I told her.

There were several others in the room whom I didn’t recognize. But I recognized their auras. They were werewolves.

I nodded at them and thanked them for coming to help.

The air in the office shimmered and Myra appeared, along with Flick and a large, black-haired woman dressed head to toe in black leather. She towered over Flick and her shoulders were broader than his. Her face was round, with high cheekbones, a broad forehead and wide, deep-red lips. She wore a rapier strapped at her hip and had several platinum knives sheathed in a wide, brown belt. The woman narrowed aquamarine-colored eyes on me and stepped forward, offering me a hand that rivaled Captain Lee’s for its size. “I’m Merriam. Nice to finally meetcha.” She had a tattoo of a dancing angel on one nicely toned biceps.

I blinked. “Um...hey, Merriam.”

Flick had turned bright red and was fidgeting all over the place. His obvious discomfort told me exactly who Merriam was. “You’re Flick’s girlfriend?”

She smiled and it completely transformed her wide face. “Yes.”

Well frunk me to Hades and back again. “It’s very nice to finally meet you too. Flick’s told me so much about you.” I lifted an eyebrow at my ex-guardian and he looked like he might pass out and hit the floor.

“Shall we get started?” Myra asked. She glared at me. She knew I was dying to tease Flick. Unfortunately, even I recognized we didn’t have time for that.

There’d be plenty of time for teasing later if I survived.

The air beside me shimmered and Slayer appeared. His handsome face was missing its usual good-natured smile. His golden eyes were hard as glass and filled with rage. He looked deadly.

“First things first,” I told the assembled group. “We need to find Crisanne.”

“I know where she is. I can take you to her.” Slayer glanced at me. “I’d like nothing better than to be the one to wrap my hands around her throat and extinguish the light from her evil, black eyes.”

Gulp. Alrighty then.

~SC~

Slayer shifted me to the grounds of the old house where we’d been before. Crisanne’s house. She hadn’t been there then, and from what I could see she’d never returned. I sent him a questioning glance.

He inclined his head, acknowledging my unspoken question. “Right address. Wrong place.” He lifted his hand and a power ball shimmered in his palm. The ball brightened and illuminated a larger area. On the farthest edge of the light was a dense copse of trees.

Old trees. Judging by the thickness of their trunks, they were probably a thousand years old. I looked at him again.

“Look closely, Astra.”

I hoped he wasn’t forgetting that I’d lost my ability to see auras and life forms. All I had left was slightly better than normal vision. But as I focused carefully on the copse of trees, I realized that was all I needed.

Between the dense, green foliage that fluttered in a persistent breeze, I could see an opacity that shouldn’t have been there.

As I continued to peer at the massive blot of black shadow, I started to make out the edges. Roughly rectangular walls rose to a peak at the top. “Tree house?”

Slayer nodded. “No stairs, no ladders, no elevators.”

I snorted. “What does she do, fly up there?” The house was seventy-five yards above the ground if it was an inch.

Slayer lifted an eyebrow and I wanted to swear.

Of course the bitch could fly. She’d sucked up all my power hadn’t she?

“Let’s kill this maggot,” I told Slayer.

He seemed disinclined to argue.

My sister had moved up next to him when he arrived. Though Darma made a face when I spoke, she didn’t argue the point.

I hadn’t really spoken to my sister since Crisanne had magic raped me. I guess I assumed she wouldn’t understand my horror at suddenly being without my power. She’d eschewed her own magic for a couple of decades before recently embracing it.

But her unaccustomed silence made me wonder what she was really thinking. She should have been bossing me around by that point. I added it to the long, long list of stuff I needed to figure out once I’d kicked Crisanne’s narrow ass back to Hell where it belonged.

The air around us had been wavering and shimmering as we’d stood there, a series of pops announcing the arrival of the rest of my merry band.

Aubrey stood next to me in his guardian form, apparently taking his guardian duties seriously. Myra, Flick and Maid Merriam stood nearby.

I guessed that made me Robin Hood.

Myra was in full, Archangel regalia, her silver and gold robes floating softly around her legs in the breeze. In warrior mode, she stood nearly as tall as the Venutians, and throbbed with anticipatory power. Her massive wings fluttered softly behind her, appearing graceful despite their immense size.

Flick looked skinny and ridiculous in a black, leather jacket and matching leather skinny pants. It wasn’t a good look for him. I could see his bony knees knocking together.

Merriam was dressed as she’d been in my office, wearing tight, black, leather pants, a form-fitting black, leather vest, and short, black boots that I would have loved to take for a test drive.

Unfortunately her feet were probably a size twelve.

Standing tall and proud next to a shrinking Flick, Merriam looked like an Amazon. Her dancing angel tattoo glowed in the dark. She grinned and gave me the thumbs up when I looked at her.

I smiled back. Despite the ridiculousness of Merriam being Flick’s new girl pearl, I realized I liked her.

The Venutians couldn’t space shift, but they’d hitched a ride with the angels.

Bob and Ralph crouched a dozen yards away, panting and peering at us through eyes that had gone eerily red in the backwash of Slayer’s light.

They were massive in their wolf forms, much larger than I would have thought given their mild mannered human personas. And nothing remained of the cute and cuddly men I’d grown to love.

When they shed their humanity to embrace their animal forms, they became unabashed predators. Nearly five feet tall at the shoulders, they had paws as big as my head. Dense fur covered rippling frames of pure muscle and sinew, allowing them to run at preternatural speeds.

Bob was charcoal gray with white and black points, and Ralph was almost solid black. Their thick snouts were open as they panted, showing enormous, white teeth that looked as if they could easily rip through even leathery gargoyle flesh. In fact, I knew that a large part of their business at Werever...Whatever was taking down rogue gargoyles when they escaped their demon handlers. The two werewolves’ yellow eyes were focused on me with an intensity that made me slightly uncomfortable. They were obviously waiting for direction. The rest of the werewolves formed a rough semi-circle that fanned out behind them.

I twisted my lips, suddenly feeling as if I’d indulged in overkill. “Do you think we brought too many warriors to the fight?” I asked Slayer. “I mean it is only one woman. We can’t all beat up on her at once.”

Slayer fixed an intense, gaze on me. His eyes were dark from the black specks that colored the gold when his emotions ran high. “Never underestimate her, Astra.” He looked around at the assembled group and addressed everyone. “Crisanne is never alone. She’ll know we’re here by now, and she’s probably got a thousand nasties lined up in there to deal with us. She controls the minds of dark fairies, gargoyles, dragons, wizards, demons, and earthbound creatures. What she doesn’t have she can create with a thought, and the manufactured beasties are every bit as deadly as the real ones. I realized only recently how much power she’s accumulated over the last several years. She’s been draining and controlling other dark world creatures for years. You’ll need all your wits about you when dealing with her. Once she gets hold of you, she can make you do whatever she wants and then suck every ounce of power out of you. This woman is evil and dangerous. Is that clear?”