The Fallen King: The Bellum Sisters 4 (paranormal erotic romance) (25 page)

“Listen, I don’t have anything to
give you, but if you’re ever up on earth and I’m there, give me a call. I’ll
hook you up with my beautiful friend Jenna. That’s all I can offer you.” She
knew she was playing dangerously but she had to. It didn’t make her feel good
to have to blow him off, he seemed like a nice...vampire guy and all, but she
had Alrik. Well, and that whole situation was a mess of a disaster as it stood.

His mouth twitched with anger. He
glanced at Alrik and scowled. “It’s him, isn’t it? You love him?”

Her reaction was instantaneous.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Love is a big word.” Abby threw her hands up and took a step
back. Fear clutched her stomach with an icy grasp. Why did she feel so panicked
at the mention of love? “I care...a bit about him. That’s it.”

He shook his head and then
stalked away from her. She had the sense she’d hurt him. “You’re lying to
yourself,” he called back to her.

Abby took a seat next to Alrik
and cupped his dark hand between hers. She hadn’t been lying. She didn’t love
him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care a bit.

Just a bit.

The man kidnapped her after all.
That surely took a few points off anything she might feel for him.

“Will you help him or not? He
saved my life.” She called out to him, letting him know with her desperation
that the power rested in his hands to help her, gift or no gift.

Aidan stopped walking. Slowly he
turned around and watched her, his jaw working. She could see the thoughts
running through his eyes: anger, disappointment, and frustration. She could
only hope that whatever decision he made bode well for her.

He didn’t say anything for a long
time. Or, at least, it felt like a long time. For minutes he watched her,
watched Alrik, and the whole time she saw him weighing the consequences of whichever
decision he’d make. The man was smart and she respected that.

“I’ll help him but only for you.”

His words stunned her. She looked
away unable to hold his gaze. The small amount of time she’d been around him
had influenced him that much? It was too much for her. Nobody should feel so
greatly, do so much for someone after being around him or her for only a matter
of hours.

Then, it hit her. Of course! She
wanted to smack herself upside the forehead. The man, er, vampire, hadn’t been
around a woman in ages. He’d said so himself. Surely if their roles were
reversed, she’d lie, beg, steal, and do anything to get a piece of a man. He
didn’t actually care about her. This was all an act because he really wanted in
her pants, badly.

Aidan shouted a gruff order at his
men. Three demons came over, one carrying a brown satchel slung over his back.
They pulled Alrik’s shirt up and his pants down. No underwear for the fallen
king of demons.

Don’t look at his butt
, she told herself.

As soon as the thought ‘butt’
entered her mind, her eyes betrayed her. Heat suffused her cheeks. He had a
great ass. Firm, tight, and sculpted. She knew first hand just how firm. She
swallowed hard, and then felt that feeling of being watched.

She looked up and nearly cursed.
The three demons were grinning at her—busted. No way could she feign a lie
about why she was checking out his ass.

With a casual shrug she didn’t
feel, she walked away to watch them work.

They worked over Alrik like a
trained medic team. One pulled out a bundle of herbs wrapped with a thin length
of rope, the next grabbed a flask made from what looked like deer hide sewn
into a pouch shape, and the last pressed against the sores along Alrik’s back
with his fingers.

Alrik might be sleeping but he
let out a pained groan as the demon pushed on him. She took a step forward,
ready to draw blood but then he relaxed his grip. Abby pressed a hand over her
heart. The pumping organ felt as though it’d jump through her chest.

“Don’t hurt him.” The words
slipped out. She hadn’t even known she was going to say it.

The demons looked at her, unsmiling,
then muttered to each other about ridiculous ‘witches’ and ‘kings’ and a ‘waste
of a good woman’.

She watched every move they made
as they worked. If they decided to try anything crazy or weird, she’d be ready
to attack in a second, but they never did.

An herb mixture was combined with
water into a pulp-like concoction that they pressed over Alrik’s wounds. She
swore she heard a fizzling sound when it touched the infected flesh. After the
pesto-looking mixture covered each of the bubbled wounds, the demons stood and
started to walk away.

“Wait, what happens next?”

The tallest of the three, a man
with beautiful dark skin like mahogany and long, wild braided hair spoke up.
“We watch him. The herbs will heal him but it takes time.”

“Okay, thank you.”

The man shook his head, a frown
on his mouth. “Don’t thank us, thank Aidan. We wouldn’t have helped this man if
it meant saving our own lives.”

Abby snorted in disbelief. “You
hate him that much?”

The man stared at Alrik’s prone, unmoving
form. Hate and rage swirled in his eyes, barely leashed. “Yes, that much.”

She didn’t get it. What could he
have done that’d make these people hate him so much? He’d kidnapped her but
things hadn’t been that bad. He never hurt her physically or emotionally since
she’d known him. She’d rate him a pretty fair kidnapper overall.

“Why?” she asked. She had to
know.

The man shook his head. “That’s
for him to tell you, not me.”

With that, he turned and walked
away.

Abby watched over Alrik as night
grew heavy and the demon’s fires burned brighter. A strange, dark colored
tattoo covered his side. It must have been painted before he was cursed because
the colors and design could barely be made out. Damn she hated this. She couldn’t
stop thinking about what the demon said. What could he have done that was so
terrible that these demons shunned themselves to leave their kingdom?

She wanted to defend him and stand
up for him, but she didn’t know what she’d say because she still didn’t really
know much about him. That actually hurt, probably much more than it should.

She didn’t talk to anyone for the
rest of the night, not even when Aidan tried to draw her into conversation. Too
much was on her mind. The woman’s name Alrik spoke last night, the hate these
demon’s had for him, and the
jaheera
demon attacking them. It was all
too much to take. A part of her wanted to forget all of this. She wished it’d
never happened, but a part of her rebelled at the thought. Then that’d mean she’d
never have met Alrik. She forced herself to stop thinking about him, about
everything. It was exhausting work.

When her eyelids grew tired she
didn’t sleep by Alrik’s side but by herself.

Chapter Seventeen

A big hand covered her mouth,
stifling her air supply.

Abbigail jerked awake on a startled
scream. Only her eyes focused on a dark, handsome face above hers. Her heart
leaped at seeing him awake for the first time since the
jaheera
attack.
Slowly, he pulled his hand away and pressed his cheek to hers, his lips to her
ear. One arm curled around her waist, pulling her into his heat. Instantly, her
body relaxed against his and soaked up his warm touch.

“Speak quietly, they are still
sleeping,” he whispered.

Blinking the sleep away, she
realized it was still dark out. She could hear the crackling of the fire, the
wind blowing tree leaves, and a few deep snores coming from the demons.

“What’s going on?” she whispered
back.

He looked over his shoulder then
pressed his lips to her ear. God, she didn’t want to like it, but seeing him
alive and well, feeling his strength and heat wrapped around her sent a raw shiver
down her body. Nothing could have stopped her from reaching around his back and
holding him.

His
muscles stiffened under her touch. She stilled too. For some reason, things
felt different now. He didn’t know about everything that had happened since
he’d been passed out. He had no idea she heard him say that name that haunted
her dreams before he woke her.

Touching
him almost felt like touching a stranger. That was until his head turned and
his lips dipped to press a kiss to her neck. Her breath caught at the soft
touch, her body becoming aware of him in a way that was impossible to ignore.
Before she knew what he was about to do, he tilted her head and his lips caught
hers in a devastating kiss. All doubts fled. This was real, not some petty,
jealous idea she’d conjured up to fill her mind. This man in her arms, kissing
her with hunger and passion, was real.

He kissed her slowly, leisurely
as if he was sampling from her. Firm lips captured hers. Wet and smooth his
tongue slid inside, curling against hers. It felt like so much more. Kisses
never felt like this like the world stopped turning just because of it, like
the pleasure shared between them was the only thing that mattered in her life.

Then he broke the kiss,
shattering the foggy haze he’d pulled over her brain. His lips were wet, and
his breathing louder; she couldn’t stop staring up at him. He looked like some
kind of fertility god people used to worship—sexy, strong, and vibrating with
health.

His lips pressed against her ear
again to whisper. His voice was deep, soft, and low. “We have to get out of
here right now.”

“Do you—”

“Quiet,” he whispered in her ear,
once again checking behind his shoulder. “I want you to get up and follow me.”

“Wait!”

Alrik cast her a lethal glare.
“Whatever you need to say will wait until we are far away from Aidan and his
men.”

They were beginning to sound like
two students trying desperately hard to have a conversation during class and
not get caught by the teacher. In her world, she’d always been caught.

Her hands kneaded the strong warm
muscles in his back. They did need to talk, like right now because she was
so
done playing around with him. She wanted answers about everything and she
wasn’t going to practice magic again until he told her. She wasn’t stupid.
She’d wait, but not for much longer. Something much bigger was on the line for
her now. Something, that if he broke, she knew would never fit back together
right.

“Fine, but we need to talk.”

The infamous four words, ‘we need
to talk’, were apparently not unknown to Alrik because he jerked his gaze to
hers and his eyes rounded wearily.

“Fine, just stay quiet and watch
your step.”

He stood without a sound, no
knees cracking, no squishing the grass beneath his feet. Just a smooth,
graceful move like a cat prowling. Abby wasn’t so athletic. She took his
outstretched hand and stood but having just woken up she wobbled on her feet.
Her left ankle wasn’t quite awake yet. It felt heavy and hot as blood rushed to
it.

“My foot’s asleep,” she
whispered.

Alrik’s jaw clenched so hard, she
could see the bone working as he ground it. With a shake of his head, he bent
to the waist and lifted her into his arms. She almost squealed, but managed to
clamp her lips shut just in time to meet his warning gaze. Strange, but some
kind of feminine glee filled her. He was carrying her like Rhett Butler in Gone
with the Wind, though decidedly less romantic since they were escaping from
some demons and not going to a sexy bedroom to make passionate love. Yeah, she
liked the other scenario better.

He managed to keep his steps surprisingly
light and quiet. Abby clung to his broad shoulders keeping her chin tucked
against his muscular shoulder and her gaze locked on the campground. She
blinked then scanned the makeshift beds on the grass again.

She was counting them but came up
three short. No, make that four, she amended. Aidan’s pallet was bare as well.

“Um, Alrik—”

“Not now.”

He started running with long
barreling steps. The man was tall and strong, and boy could he move fast. Not
once did his grip on her waver. She jerked her gaze forward just in time to see
them nearing the massive black fissure the demon created before it died.

A cry started from the back of
her throat before she could stop it.

Alrik jumped and they flew
through the air in a mighty arch. Her stomach bottomed out as if she was flying
downhill on a hurtling rollercoaster.

Icy fog covered her. At first she
thought it was the temperature of the air just being cold that high up, but he couldn’t
jump
that
high. They hit the ground way too softly with his knees giving
in a bit to take the hit.

“You used magic.” That explained
the icy feeling. How fitting that hers warmed and his chilled.

Alrik had just taken a step
forward when a metallic sound filled the air like someone playing with a knife
or...

As soon as the thought struck a
blade slid in front of them to block them. The sharp point rested eerily close
to their throats. Aidan appeared from behind her. Amazing, she’d never seen or
heard him move. He had to be quiet even by demon’s standards.