The Devil You Need (8 page)

“I like you that way. I think I’ll leave you for a while.”

“Dialle, this isn’t funny.”

He stood, walked away from the bed, and was fully clothed
with a thought. “I agree. It’s not meant to be.” He started toward the door.
“I’m off to take care of the rest of your little invading party.”

“Wait. You knew we were here for you? Why didn’t you help us
out there?”

The cold look on his handsome face when he turned back made
me gasp. “Help you? Who do you think sent those soldiers after you?”

Hell-bent

So when our lady finds herself, in handcuffs made of
naught,

It’s easy to convince oneself, the devil must be
caught.

The only good thing about my situation, if there was a good
thing, was that Dialle had apparently decided to underestimate me. He hadn’t
given me a chance to tell him about my newly charged battery so he believed he
could hold me with a little magic.

Wouldn’t he be surprised when I got loose and went to kick
his ass? Lovingly of course. He deserved it for tying me up. And for thinking I
was too weak or stupid to escape. He should know better. Leaving me to my own
devices was never a smart move, especially when I was desperate.

And fear for Dialle and my friends had made me very
desperate.

I pulled power from my core and sent it into the magic
cuffs. The silver light of my power illuminated the cuffs and the chain that
trailed to the rock wall behind the bed. The newly lit chain was anchored into
the wall with a couple of enchanted loops. I wrapped my hands around the chains
and yanked harder, infusing my efforts with a little energy.

Nothing. But the power I was using to illuminate the chains
was heating them. They were hot enough, in fact, to burn my skin. But they
didn’t break or even appear to weaken. With a jolt, I realized what they were.

Angel chains. Formed of both light and dark magic.
Impossible for angels and creatures of the light to break because severing the
chain required both light and dark magics. We’d used the very same type of
magic to hold Dialle’s father captive once.

I’d been able to manipulate Dialle the First’s prison then,
because I’d been tied to my Dialle through the daemon hickey. But I no longer
had access to dark magic. Even my own stores, being part devil, were gone. All
I had was the pure, white power I’d gotten from my aunt.

With a sinking heart I realized Dialle hadn’t underestimated
me at all. I truly was as helpless as he’d assumed.

The door opened and I lifted my head. The face that peered
through the opening was delicate, appealing in a painfully innocent way. I
wondered what the attractive young thing had done to get herself sent to Hell.
But as she stepped around the door and smiled, I realized I’d been stupid to
judge a devil by its beautiful face.

She was obviously a royal. And, judging by her delicate,
human-like beauty, I’d say a pretty powerful one. I wondered if Dialle had sent
her to me.

She closed the door behind her and swayed toward me, the
thick fall of blonde hair dancing on either side of her narrow waist as she
walked. She was dressed like a human too, but the swirling color in her black
eyes gave her away.

“Creamy skin and blonde hair. Somebody has identity issues.”
My little barb didn’t seem to have any effect. Except to widen her wicked
smile. Apparently her creamy skin was as thick as a three-horned Martian
pedipod’s hide.

“The infamous Astra Q. Phelps. This is truly my lucky day.”

I frowned, feeling worse than exposed and unable to do
anything about it except lift my chin and pretend I was a smartass. Okay, I’ll
admit that didn’t really require an enormous amount of acting ability. “Two
points for knowing my name. How about giving me yours so we can start out on a
level playing field.”

She stopped next to the bed and slid a swirling gaze over my
nakedness. I ground my teeth together and forced myself not to squirm. She
licked her velvety bottom lip and reached out to skim a fingertip over my
belly. “I’d hardly call
you
being tied to a bed and
me
standing
beside the bed even.”

Before I could stop myself I sucked in a breath. She lifted
a delicate blonde eyebrow and cocked her head. “You’re prettier than I would
have thought. Though you’re very small for someone with such a large
reputation.”

“I look taller when I’m standing up. Why don’t you release
me from these chains and I’ll show you.”

Her laughter slipped over my skin like heated oil, creating
sensual havoc. My pussy clenched hopefully, sending warm liquid sliding down my
thigh, and my nipples hardened.

Unfortunately she noticed. “Is our king not keeping you
happy, my queen?” She lifted her head and looked around, her disturbing gaze
taking in the dilapidated state of Dialle’s rooms. “I guess I already know the
answer to that…” Her gaze returned to me, filled with angry color. “Don’t I?”

I pulled power forward and held it close. I wasn’t sure what
I was going to be able to do with it but I could almost smell danger in the air
around the beautiful Royal and I felt just vulnerable enough, lying chained and
naked before her, to overreact.

She sat next to me on the bed, dropping a hand on either
side of my waist, and lowered her face close to mine. “Don’t think to use your
puny powers on me, Tweener. You haven’t enough in you to do me any real harm.
And since your bond with our king is broken, there’s really no reason not to
squash you like the brimstone-sucking cockroach you are.”

“Technically, I don’t suck brimstone. That would be
your
drug of choice, apparently.”

She bit my bottom lip, hard. Her brutally sharp teeth tore
into my skin and pain sluiced through me. I cried out as she jerked her head
and ripped a deep rift in my skin.

As she lifted her head, warm blood ran down my chin.

She licked her lips, closing her eyes with pleasure as she
tasted my blood. “It would appear your mouth is the only large thing on you,
Tweener.”

I forced my mind away from the pain in my lip. Her proximity
had given me an idea. “I don’t know about that. My ass is pretty big too.”

She stared at me for a long moment, apparently trying to
decide if she was going to chew on my nose too, but she finally laughed,
shaking her head with wonder. “I can’t figure out if you’re very brave, or just
extremely stupid.”

When I grinned, a jolt of pain from my torn lip reminded me
it wasn’t a good idea. “Take your pick. I’ve heard both all my life. I prefer
to believe that I’m just that good, of course. But you might disagree.”

She slipped her finger over my breast, circling a rigid
nipple. I let my body react this time, allowing the scent of my arousal to
saturate the air between us. “I’m also very much in my Settling right now,
devil. So if you aren’t planning on doing something about that I’d appreciate
it if you wouldn’t tease me.”

“Then it seems it will be easier to torture you than I’d
assumed.”

I shrugged and closed my eyes, letting her delicate touch
stir the lust Dialle had fired to life again. I jerked when moist heat
encompassed my nipple and my eyes shot open. She had her lips around the rigid
peak and, as I looked into her eyes, she sucked hard on the hungry flesh.

I didn’t have to fake the moan that emerged from my throat.
My hips arched upward of their own accord. My Settling might be greatly diminished
without my magics, but the little store of power within me was apparently
enough to keep it alive.

She licked her way down my body and stopped, her hot breath
bathing my mons. I held my breath, suddenly afraid of what she’d do. She
laughed as if she could sense my fear and opened her lips wide, showing me her
elongated canines. “Scream pretty for me, ugly Tweener.”

I told myself I wouldn’t scream. I wouldn’t give her the
pleasure. But then she plunged those massive teeth into my mons and all bets
were off. I screamed long and hard, my hands straining the magic chains as
blood ran down my thigh. She sucked the wounds she’d made and pleasure melded
with the pain, bringing me closer to orgasm than I would have thought possible.

My gaze locked on the bright ribbon of rich, red blood
running over my pale skin and I suddenly wondered what it would taste like.

She closed her eyes and moaned as she suckled blood through
the holes she’d made in my flesh. Too bad her fun was about to end.

“What’s your name?” I asked her in a husky voice.

Her eyes opened and glanced upward. She lifted her head and
shimmied up my body, pressing her soft warmth against my throbbing mons as she
put her lips close to my ear. “I am Kiri. And I am the last thing you will see
or feel in this world, Astra Q. Phelps.”

I sucked in a breath as her teeth found my throat. My hips
arched upward and I ground myself against her soft belly, the picture of
helpless need.

As her teeth closed down on my throat I smiled. “That might
be true, Kiri.” I yanked my power forward and let it wash out of me unfettered
and wild. It blasted away from me with an audible whoosh and wrapped itself
around the devil riding my body, hitting her with the force of a laser train.
“But I’m thinking not.”

She screamed as the angelic energy slammed into her and her
head came back, her black eyes swirling red with pain and rage.

For a moment I was worried she wasn’t going to fight back.
But then she stiffened her spine and, with an angry roar, slammed a fist into
my chest and sent magic, black and oily with evil, surging into me.

The pain blossomed outward in a knife-like flash, making it
impossible even to breathe. A horrible sense of déjà vu swamped me and I almost
forgot what I was trying to do. Tears slipped from my eyes as I screamed under
the onslaught of her horrific power and my skin felt as if it was being ripped
from my body.

Just like that I was back in that underground cavern, strung
between two huge devil guards with Crisanne standing over me. Once more I was
being raped of my magic, beaten into nothingness beneath a stronger creature’s
massive power. Again, I was being reduced to helplessness.

I whimpered as the royal riding my body laughed, her
terrifying black gaze widening with pleasure as my body shriveled beneath hers.

I squeezed my eyes closed and tried like hell to fold myself
into the fetal position. But I couldn’t move my arms and legs. I was trapped.
Helpless. Terrified.

Again.

Then I remembered why I was there. Somehow, through the
choking fog of heart-stopping pain, my mind formed around a single, inescapable
word.
Dialle
. It was the only thing that could make me fight back, when
all I wanted after months of pain and despair was to give up, curl into a tight
little ball, and let my life wash quietly away.

But his name was a lock against those thoughts. It forced me
to remember something very important. I still had work to do.

I opened my eyes and looked into that smug black gaze. Blood
ran from my ears and nose and my vision was hazy, but I wasn’t going to let the
devil win again.

As Gus had taught me to do, I fought my natural instinct to
repel external magic and concentrated hard on turning myself into a receiving
device. We hadn’t practiced pulling dark magic into my core, but I figured the
principle should be the same.

It wasn’t quite, though. Because dark and light magic don’t
easily fill the same space. Like oil and water, they don’t like to mix.

At first the magic refused to be drawn in. It continued to
scour my flesh like acid, repelling the bright energy filling my core. I fought
on, feeling my energy and magic sliding away from me even as my heart stuttered
in my chest.

I closed my eyes and tried to push the pain away. It was a
nearly impossible task.

Kiri’s power sliced into me, ripping across my flesh like
knives, while clutching my insides in an unrelenting grip that turned them to
mush. But I focused harder, challenging my will to win, testing myself against
a grueling and seemingly impossible task.

Slowly, ever so slowly I sensed the dark magic giving way. I
knew the moment the first small strand of her dark power fused with mine. My
eyes shot open and my chest swelled under the pulse of power growing there.

A moment later, Kiri felt it too. Her perfect, pink lips
opened as she sucked a surprised breath of air. I increased my efforts, giving
a final, brutal pull on her power to drag it, harsh and clawing, from her
breast.

Kiri threw back her head and screamed, the sound throbbing
across the dense waves of power filling the room and beating against my eardrums
like distant thunder.

Finally, she collapsed on top of me and, gritting my teeth,
I tried to disengage from her power before I killed her. The connection between
us held firm. I tried again, using everything I had to cut the bond. It thinned
and rolled away, evading my mental grasp.

The Royal on my chest stopped twitching and her eyes rolled
back in her head. I could no longer see her chest rising in breath. I panicked.
With a cry of desperation, I bore down on the stream of black power pouring into
my core and sliced it clean off, sagging back to the bed with relief.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my head in my hands as her
ugly magic rolled around under my skin. Nausea boiled in my belly and for a
moment I thought I would be sick. I had felt the same way during the
veil-locking ceremony, when Dialle fed me black energy in an effort to defeat
Satan and keep the veil from locking down over the Earth. It had nearly killed
me then. And I don’t think I’d consumed nearly as much of it.

When I thought I could keep the contents of my stomach in
place, I looked up at the shimmering chains locking me to the bed and, with a
thought, sliced cleanly through the cuffs. I looked at the cuffs around my
ankles and did the same.

Shoving Kiri to the side, I slid out from under her and felt
her heart. It was barely beating. I needed to heal her or she would die.

But before I did that…

I reached for the discarded chains and clapped them over her
wrists, sealing them with a jolt of magic. Then I sent healing magics into her
chest and, after a moment her eyes fluttered weakly open.

I climbed off the bed, dressing myself with a thought before
I even realized I’d done it.
Damn.
I grinned. That power would come in
handy for sure.