The Devil You Need (7 page)

In about another minute they’d have some help.

The approaching warrior was very close. I glanced at Darma. She
had a massive ball of energy spitting in her pale palm and was waiting, her
clear blue gaze locked on her target.

The warrior flew on, now only a few dragon lengths away. I
resisted saying anything, not sure if Glynus’ magic bubble deadened sound as well
as sight.

But as he came within a few feet of us I opened my mouth,
unable to hold my tongue any longer.

Darma screamed, “Now!” and Glynus and Spence pulled apart,
sucking the warrior into their bubble. Darma immediately planted her magic in
the warrior’s surprised face and Glynus and Spence slammed sideways, stunning
the gargoyle with dual solid blows to its entire length.

The soldier’s head snapped back and he toppled off his
mount, falling silently toward the fire below.

The gargoyle creature didn’t even have enough air left in
its body to roar as Spence and Glynus gave it another two-sided body blow and
then slipped apart, allowing it to fall toward the boiling ground below.

I glanced toward the battle and was relieved to see we
hadn’t been noticed. Darma’s tricky little maneuver had bought us an extra few
seconds of surprise. I grinned at my sister, actually feeling proud. “Good job.
That was pure genius.”

Her lips twitched but she quickly hid the smile behind a
scowl. “Don’t sound so surprised, Astra.”

A pained shout brought me back to the reason for our
headlong rush across Hell’s smoky skies and I looked ahead. We were close
enough to drop Glynus’ pretty magic and join the fun. I climbed onto my feet,
spreading them to balance on Glynus’ wide back. Pulling my sword, I glanced at
Emo. “Ready, partner?”

He was already on his feet, a sword in one hand and a long,
platinum chain coiled loosely around the other. “Ready, boss.”

I looked at my sister. She was still seated, looking
slightly green around the gills but she had energy spitting in each hand and
appeared determined to fight the battle. She nodded.

“Good. Then let’s get in there and kick some red hiney.”

* * * * *

My sword slashed down and a quick jolt of power from my left
hand sent the warrior screaming off his monstrous ride, to ping against the
mutant head of the creature flying just below.

I watched with satisfaction as he was snagged out of the
air, caught in the intractable jaws of the gargoyle creature, and flung away
again like a chunk of moldy cheese, only this time coated in oily gargoyle
spit.

Glynus made quick work of the soldier’s nasty ride just as a
sword slammed toward my head from the other side. I turned to meet the
heavy-handed thrust with my sword, sucking in a strained breath as the
blood-coated blade drove my sword back toward my face.

The attacker’s blade stopped a hair away from my nose. Using
a power-enhanced strength I wasn’t sure I could sustain, I looked into my
attacker’s beady, black eyes and slowly forced him backward.

Under attack from three riderless gargoyle things at once,
Glynus bobbled slightly and I fell backward, my attacker leaping onto Glynus’
back to drive me down. The razor-sharp edge of his sword sliced into my throat,
burning like the fire roiling far beneath us.

He held the sword against my throat and looked down at me, a
wide smile forming on his craggy, lips. “At last we have you. He will be
pleased.”

“You don’t have me yet, gargoyle breath, and trust me when I
tell you Satan will be anything but pleased if I ever meet up with him again.”

The soldier’s black eyes widened slightly just as a silvery
coil of metal snaked around his throat and jerked him backward and into the
air. I looked up and saw Emo, smiling down at me from his dragon several yards
away. “Take a load off, boss.”

I shook my head and flipped to my feet. “Thanks, partner.”

Emo flicked his wrist and the magic-enhanced lasso unfurled,
dropping its cargo, kicking and screaming, into molten death below.

“To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you,” I
screamed after him.

Emo laughed, seemingly enjoying himself. I guessed after
months in Heaven, surrounded by endless peace and mind-numbing serenity, he was
enjoying the chance to kick some ass again.

Glynus finished off the last of the three riderless monsters
with a tail-spike to its gut and I looked around. The battle seemed to be
winding down a bit, and most of our fighters still stood.

I smiled. Chalk one up for the good guys. I realized it was
a good time to go looking for Dialle. Turning to Glynus, I opened my mouth to
tell her exactly that. The air behind me shimmered and a strong pair of arms
snaked around my waist and throat.

I jerked, instinctively reaching for my power, before I
realized who it was.

“Hello, my love.”

Feeling my eyes widen in surprise, I tried to turn in his
arms, but quickly found myself locked in a space-shift, unable to move or
speak. As soon as our feet touched the ground Dialle’s arms loosened around me.
I turned and his sweet, firm lips found mine.

Heat blossomed in my belly from his taste and the feel of
his hard body wrapped around mine. His delicious scent surrounded me, creating
a heated and immediate response in the pleasure centers of my body. His hands
skipped over my hips and breasts, hard and frantic.

My sexy devil’s kiss was filled with so much emotion that,
for a moment, I was afraid it would completely overwhelm me. With a soft and
desperate cry, I molded my body to his and slipped my arms around him, sliding
my hands beneath the softness of his customary white shirt. His skin felt
smooth and warm under my fingers—a balm for the mental anguish I’d been
nurturing since he’d disappeared.

I pulled my lips from his. “I was so worried about you.”

His lips were everywhere, touching my mouth, my cheeks, my
chin. His tongue slipped out to taste my skin and slide a brand over the seam
of my lips. His desire was obvious in the hard shaft that pressed against my
belly.

My head fell back as he nibbled his way down my throat. “Why
did you leave?”

“Shhh, no talking. I just want to make love to you, Astra. I
need
to make love to you.”

There was something in his voice—a sharp, desperate tone
that made my heart nearly break in two. “I need you too, Dialle. But there’s
something I need to tell you—”

“Shhh.” His lips descended on mine and all thought
disappeared. Nothing was as important as the taste of him against my lips.
Nothing could compete with the feel of him in my arms. I shoved everything else
away…the rest of the world…my worries…my own insecurities…and just embraced
him, heart and soul.

Our clothing disappeared on a whisper of air.

Dialle wrapped himself around me and walked us backward. My
legs bumped up against something soft and Dialle leaned into me until I toppled
backward, landing on a supple, encompassing surface.

The bedclothes felt cool and slightly rough against my naked
body. By contrast, Dialle draped my front in warmth, sliding against me like a
cat as his mouth continued to devour mine. He pressed a firm thigh between my
legs and I opened for him, my wet, already clenching pussy eager to feel him
deep inside.

Dialle grasped my hands in his and pulled them over my head.
His hands were like steel bands around my wrists, not painful, but hard and
unrelenting. His kisses went from tender to ravishing in the space of a breath
and I responded in kind.

As Dialle’s tender tasting morphed into nibbles and then
bites, my throbbing, eager body thrashed and pulled against the restraints of
his hands on my wrists.

Instead of terrifying me, as being restrained should have
done, the restriction of my freedom drenched the act of love in a new flavor.
It was a flavor that I’d never fully tasted before, but realized I wanted to
explore.

His hands holding me hostage and his legs splayed to hold
mine wide, Dialle bit my lip, drawing blood, and then proceeded to suck it
until it throbbed. My head thrashing back and forth on the mattress, I yelled
his name, desperate to feel him inside me.

Dialle moved down my body, nipping my throat, bathing it in
sparks of delightful pain, and then to my breasts. He looked up at me then, his
black eyes swirling in dizzying pools of passionate color. Red fought with
orange and a deep, vibrant purple in his gaze, telling me more than words how
much he craved what we were about to do. “I dreamed of you last night, my love.
This was my dream. That I would have you, bound and screaming with lust, and
you would bear the bleeding marks of my passion across your flawless skin.”

I writhed under the power of his words. In a deep, dark
corner of my mind I knew it was wrong. I knew the restraints that held my
wrists and ankles—no longer bound by Dialle’s hands but restrained by something
my eyes couldn’t see—were wrong. I knew the painful marking of my body was
beyond acceptable, but I didn’t care. My mind demanded more. My flesh blossomed
under the strange pull of violence his love had become. My body screamed with
need. My skin felt abraded under it. “Fuck me, Dialle.”

“Beg, Astra.”

“Please fuck me. I think I’ll lose my mind if you don’t.”

He lowered his head and encompassed a turgid nipple in
impossible heat. I cried out and arched upward, driving the hard nub deep
within his mouth. I ground my pussy against the rigid heat of his chest and
belly, painting his skin with my scent, my heated cream. My legs wrapped around
him, dragging him closer, as if by sheer force of will I could mount him and
bury him deep within me.

Dialle’s chest vibrated against my skin as if he were
growling and the sensation that created in my desperate pussy was
mind-shattering. I pressed closer, squeezing him with my knees until they began
to shake.

My body was rabid in its lust. Pain and pleasure had merged
into one, all-consuming necessity.

Dialle bit down on my breast, piercing its unsullied surface
with ravenous abandon. Pain morphed quickly into delight. Ripples of it washed
through me, making my pussy clench hard and sending warm cream sliding down my
thigh.

I screamed as he sucked on the wound he’d made, my head
thrashing helplessly as I found the release that had waited just beyond my
grasp and pulled it, full and shrieking, into my possession.

My hands dragged against the restraints holding them away
from Dialle. My legs jerked against the invisible manacles. I jerked and
writhed beneath him, my pussy clenching in unfettered delight, and I came over
and over and over again, running full-blown toward the siren call of his lips
and teeth on my breast.

Every suck on my nipple sent a new wave of joy slashing
through me. Every jolt of pain carried me over a new peak, burying me under wave
after wave of sensual delight.

When I was weak from my release, Dialle lifted his head from
my breast and slipped between my thighs, his swirling black gaze holding mine
as he buried himself deep within my pulsing channel.

I cried out again as he filled me, stretched me, and sent me
spinning toward a new and building wave of pleasure.

He was deliciously hard, buried impossibly deep. He looked
down at me and smiled, the taut curve of lips just cruel enough to make my
stomach flutter with fear. He moved within me, the tiniest movement, and
sensation exploded. I shuddered under it, too consumed by the sensations
ripping through me to even cry out.

I couldn’t imagine the sensation of a full thrust. I started
to doubt I’d even survive. A moment later I was sure I
had
died from the
pleasure. He tucked his hips and drove deep and it was like something split
open inside me, something that had been keeping me restrained for years,
something that no longer had the will or need to confine my overwhelming lust.

Heat surged through me, opening my cells and crashing full
force into them. My lungs expanded with Dialle-charged air and everything
within me blossomed.

He lowered his head and covered my mouth with lips that
ravished and consumed. He thrust harder with every stroke, building an oncoming
explosion in my sexual core. Together we built a new fire, forged a different
sensual footprint than we’d ever created before.

My hands strained against the magic cuffs, drawing blood.
Dialle’s body slipped against mine, creating sparks wherever we touched and
sending my world spinning smaller and smaller with every thrust. It was just
us. Just him and me. And nothing else existed beyond our tiny sphere.

The flames built around us. Grew. Flashed. Spit with growing
intensity.

Dialle’s kisses turned bruising, his body thrusting harder
and faster within mine, until he lifted his incredible lips from mine and cried
out, his head falling back on a scream.

I felt his cock jerking inside me, felt his skin shudder
under the power of his release, and I couldn’t help following him over into my
own power-drenched orgasm.

I cried out as my body found that edge and toppled into a
pleasure so intense I swooned under its power. Stars burst beneath my closed
lids, dizziness swamped me, and my body clenched his so tightly I thought I
heard him groan beneath it.

As his body softened out of his orgasm, he dropped over me,
panting, and skimmed a damp ribbon of hair off my face. He dropped his head and
gently nuzzled my throat, where once he’d forged our connection with a magical
daemon hickey that no longer existed. I held my breath, waiting to see if he
would do it again. But he only lingered for a second and then lifted his head
and rolled away.

We lay, panting, side by side and I realized with a start
that my magic manacles hadn’t released. I tugged on them and they held. “Uh,
you can release these now.”

He glanced my way and smiled.

Fear slipped cold fingers up my spine.