Demon Branded (Demons of Florida) (11 page)

“What’s wrong with her?” That was Brock. Her brother. Her alpha. His voice was the only one besides her mate that could make her ears perk though she wanted to ball up and hide.

“We need to get them home. There’s still a shot at her being able to anchor his soul to his body. He’s clinging by a thread and trying to stay with her.”

“Shit. He looks and smells dead to me. Let’s go, the fire is sending plastic fumes everywhere. If the PACk weakens we won’t be able to fight off any of the hellions or Demons that are sticking around.”

The scent of her alpha surrounded her and she whimpered, butting her head into his leg. He bent and gathered her up. She scrambled her paws trying to get back to her mate. “Shh, little sissie. He’s right here.”

The roar and horrible taste of flames invaded her mouth and nose but she sought through it, finding Tiago’s familiar scent. Brock ran with her through the smoke and chaos. Demons carried off pieces of furniture and chests, rugs, framed art. Anything they could rip from the floor or walls was being carted off. She snorted, sneezing through her muzzle. VanDross should’ve had a fire retardant house. After all, they were all demons.

Soon they were outside. Vedo carried his son, carefully cradling his head. Several wolves trotted next to them, baring teeth and attacking any approaching hellions. A wolf lurched, diving for a mongrel who paused to grin and lick his lips. Before the hellion had time to leap onto the back of his intended wolf victim, one of the PACk had ripped out his throat.

Vedo climbed into the back of a limo where Cin held the door. Brock paused and made a shrill whistle. Wolves came from all directions, from the mansion, the drive, the side front lawn where a battle waged and blood shone on the grass. As one, they howled and disappeared into the darkness, returning to their place in the woods.

Inside the car, Allie, Brock’s mate, shouted from the driver’s seat. ‘”Get in. It’s gonna get bumpy.”

The car screeched and bumped. They rode over a
thump, thump, thump
.

“Damn, Allie. You don’t need to run over every hellion you see. We need to keep it steady back here,” Brock chided.

“It’s all clear now,” she answered and the car sped forward with a punch of the gas.

Ona fell out of Brock’s hold and curled onto the seat near Tiago’s arm where he lay stretched out, his father and mother holding his torso and head immobile. Cin spoke low, either to herself or to them, Ona wasn’t sure. “He’ll come around.”

Vedo gasped, but the big demon didn’t make another sound.

Ona licked Tiago’s hand and ran her muzzle under the sleeve of his coat, chasing his burning hickory scent. She couldn’t find it.

Whining filled the car at an aching pitch.

“Shh, sissie.” Brock ran a hand on her head and the whining morphed to a whimper.

The car stopped.

“We need to move him one more time, Ona. Can you let him go?” Brock ran his fingers under her neck and nudged her until she brought her muzzle back and let them carry Tiago’s body from the car. His hand fell limply from his side.

“Keep her close. To keep him grounded, she needs to be near.”

Confusion clouded her mind. Tiago was gone. How could she keep him grounded? Her legs gained new strength and the grief eased enough for her to follow. She nearly clipped Vedo’s heels the entire way inside the Montevedo mansion and up to the second floor, where she’d changed for that blasted party what seemed years ago.

“Listen carefully.” Cin put a hand on her head and kept her back when she would’ve leapt onto Tiago’s bed to guard his lifeless body. “I was dead when I met Vedo. Yes. Dead. But part of me still lingered, barely, and he was able to yoke me back using the demon brand. You still have a hold on Tiago and his spine is still intact. That’s all he needs—that and the will to heal. Call him back.”

Then she was alone with a body so cold it couldn’t still hold a demon.

Cin had been dead. The brand had brought her back. Ona sat on her haunches and brought her head around, nosing the brand beneath her fur. It remained there, hidden, and when she touched it, it tinged and an infinitesimal pulse throbbed once. She nearly missed it, but it was there.

Shifting yet again, the change making her weary after so many in one night, she shook her body before stepping away from the fur that had fallen at her feet.

“You don’t look comfortable,” she croaked. Clearing her throat, she stood at the foot of the bed and gripped one of Tiago’s loafers. “That was one hell of a party. I was enjoying it up until the point when you got your neck sliced through. But it’s time for you to stop sleeping it off and wake up.”

He didn’t stir, and strange as it was to hope the smart ass comment would wake him up to give her a sardonic response, nothing changed. She tugged his shoes off and proceeded to carefully and thoroughly strip him from the waist down. Not daring to look closely, she unbuttoned his shirt and suit jacket, spreading them wide, but she couldn’t bring herself to lift him to take them off. The cloth wrapped around his neck was quite the reminder not to jostle him too much.

“And when you wake up, no more of this self-sacrificing thing. You may think dying is a small price for breaking the cartels, but not to me.” A small sob trapped in her chest and she growled, unwilling to let it free.

Heavy with spent energy and emotion, she trudged to his bathroom and grabbed wet wash cloths. She gently cleaned the blood from him, careful to stay away from his wound, and left the pile of soiled laundry on the bedside table.

Straddling his hips, she searched his face but there’d been no change.

“What do I do?”

No answer. Tears didn’t fall. She never cried. But her chest ached and her breathing grew difficult. She slapped the top of her thigh in frustration and dropped her chin to her chest. She stared at her arm. She’d shifted so much in the last few hours, her tattoos had faded. Except, the demon brand was still where Tiago had put it. Still a dark red. She ran her shaking fingers over the swirls on her thigh. She couldn’t read the fancy demonic script. But Tiago had told her what it said.

Murmuring, she traced the lines. “Demon and woman, united as one.”

The brand grew brighter, more livid. A tangible zing vibrated her fingertips from the mark and rushed through her entire body.

“Come back to me, Tiago. You’re still in there, I can feel you now. Come back. We’re united as one. This wolf needs her nephilim.” She caressed the brand on her hip with one hand and following some internal instinct, she fluttered a light stroke down her belly, teasing herself, not quite reaching her mound that went wet with a keening empty ache.

She gasped and bowed, the tingling hitting sensitive areas like Tiago had dozens of fingers stroking her everywhere at once, her clit, her nipples, the hollow of her neck, her ankles, and the base of her spine. It was Tiago, somehow. The rush of desire that brought her to the edge with only a flash of hope.

A small gasp of breath sent her pulse racing. She leaned over that broad chest and teased her nipples in his light chest hair. His lids fluttered and relief nearly crushed the breath out of her.

Lightly touching his lip, she let her trembling fingers glide over his face as his color returned. The deathly white pallor gave way to his naturally tanned appearance. Red streaked high on his cheekbones like a blush. His stubble had been stark, but now gave him a rugged appearance, set against his normal appearance.

Unable to contain the emotion welling in her, she gasped and her hand landed on his chest above his heart. It thumped again, to the tune and rhythm of her racing pulse. His body shuddered and his torso arced from the bed. She fell to the side and threw her arm around him to keep him down.

Shivers wracked his body and he moaned.

“Tiago?”

Still no answer. Her brand stung anew, as if he’d taken the tattoo gun to her again. Pain scorched through her and she clasped her upper thigh, bearing down on it, but the action didn’t help. Tiago’s body shuddered and stilled.

She licked her lips and frowned at him.

“You liked that? When I touched where you marked me with your blood?”

She stroked over it again and it tingled. Glancing down at a flutter brushing her hip, she could swear the brand moved, undulating in a serpentine-like circle inside her skin. Her pussy heated and throbbed, her tits tightened and every single inch of her skin came alive. It was unbearable, the need that crashed into her. Still beside him, she thrust her leg over his groin, bringing her center to his hip and seeking pressure where she needed it.

Tiago groaned again and beneath her leg, his cock stirred and filled.

“Wake up and fuck me,” she whispered in his ear then nipped the lobe and pulled.

Tiago growled low. His entire body vibrated. He tugged one arm  trapped between them and with both hands, tore at the make-shift bandage around his throat.

“Wait,” she pleaded and straddling him, gripped his wrists.

But it was too late, he ripped away the cloth. Beneath it, steam billowed out and she leaned back to avoid the hot air erupting from him. A thin trail of bubbling blood streamed down from a red gash that closed before her eyes. If she didn’t want him to heal so badly, if she weren’t used to delivering these kinds of wounds with her own teeth, she’d have gagged on her own spit and run screaming from the room.

Instead, she ignored the lust still coursing through her and using one of the cloths she retrieved from the side table, wiped away the blood to reveal a neck that was no longer severed nearly off but only had a small cut all the way around. He still hadn’t opened his eyes or spoken.

“Are you in there? Say something.”

“I feel you inside me.” His gravelly voice brought tears to her eyes. “I want to feel me inside you.”

With a lunge, he flipped them. He landed on top of her and nestled his hard cock between her spread thighs. Canting his hips, he thrust inside her in one hard push.

“Oh fuck, yeah.” She gripped his shoulders to keep from screaming, it felt so good to have him stretching and filling her. Her thighs clamped around his hips and held him securely. He didn’t move but nuzzled his face between her breasts. His mouth clamped down on her nipple and his tongue flicked the bud as he sucked. She groaned. “Oh fuck, yeah.”

She felt him grin around her breast but he didn’t stop. He licked across her chest to tease her other nipple. Her hands threaded in his hair and held him to her as his hips finally started moving in a languid pace. “Harder. Give it to me harder.”

He bit her nipple and she did scream then.

“I’ll give it to you exactly how I want, mate.”

The word zinged through her and her she-wolf brushed against her mind, pleased with Tiago’s claim. But then the wolf calmed, letting her leave the confusion of that internal beast behind and try to understand it all.

“You sure you’re new to this sex thing? You sure are bossy.”

He thrust hard. Once, twice, then lifted his head from toying with her nipples and the expression on his face nearly undid her. He was tender but possessive all at the same time. His mouth, red and wet from licking her, quirked up in a half-smile as his eyes glistened, searching her—looking inside her to see everything she’d ever been. And all she’d ever be. She was bared to him, body and mind.

“I’m sure. You’re it for me.” He kissed the tip of her nose but didn’t move otherwise. She squirmed beneath him, desperate for his hips to rock that thick and hard cock into her. “You brought me back from the edge of death. Nothing else could have done that. I was too close, but the connection between us kept me fighting to hang on. And your courage, your irreverence, your innate need to defend what’s yours. You killed VanDross, didn’t you?”

“How?” She couldn’t ask how he’d seen that when he was dead.

“I had a sense of what you did as I lay in a fog of gray. You claimed me then. You defended me—made me yours in that defense.”

She trailed her hands from his hair and down his back until she palmed his ass and squeezed. His hips bucked forward and his cock moved, giving her the friction she needed.

“If you’re mine, then give me what I crave.”

“My pleasure, Mrs. Montevedo.”

He slammed into her with such force the bed shook. She gasped and wrapped her legs around him, hooking her ankles at his back and urging him on.

“Don’t. Go. So. Far. I’m. Ona. Wolf. Rick.” She stuttered, one word for each thrust that rocked her entire body.

“Mrs. Montevedo,” he demanded and rose up over her. His arms straightened and his body levered, grinding down on her mound, giving her clit so much pressure she ached to come.

“Wolfrick,” she gasped and gripped his arms as the force of their joining sent her body up the bed.

He pinned her shoulders down and shoved his hips into her, making her legs spread wide to accommodate him. Stroking in short, powerful thrusts, he sent her mind reeling. His lips came down for a kiss and his tongue plunged inside her, giving her his hickory taste that she’d become addicted to in such a short time. He pulled away before she was ready and she whimpered.

“Say it. Montevedo.”

“You want to own me.” She gasped as he snaked a hand down over her body, pressing into her skin until he came to her mound, teasing her clit with a brush of his fingers right where the joined.