Demon Bound (Bound Series, Book One) (10 page)

Axelle wakes up the next morning in the dark room. She wiggles in the bed and her naked body slides across the gorgeous silk sheets. She sighs and with a smile remembers the events of last night.

Luc had taken her to a live torture show. Where or how, she has no idea, all she knows is that it had excited her to see the female dominating the weak male and the scent of his blood had aroused her beyond belief. She had grown bold and taken Luc’s hand to place in between her legs. She had held her breath as he squeezed, but then he quickly removed his hand with a hiss.

Her eyes fly open as she remembers seeing something. She could have sworn she saw a forked tongue slip out of his mouth, but when she looked again it wasn’t there. Oh how she wants him to kiss her with that tongue and thinking of all the other things he could do with it sends a bolt of desire coursing through her and she moans, turning her head into the silk pillow. He is killing her with his abstinence.

She groans then as she remembers that today is the day she might not survive. She wants to weep and crawl under the bed and refuse to let it happen, but she knows that isn’t an option. So what better way to distract herself and give herself a big send off. If Luc won’t give her one, then she will just take it herself. She slides her hands down the silk sheets, bunching them up as she goes along, exposing her naked body, and hoping that Luc is watching her.

She lightly fingers herself, feeling how wet she is and she gasps, putting on a little show for him… just in case.

***

Of course Luc is watching her. He hasn’t taken his eyes off her since he put her to bed several hours ago. Between the torture show and Axelle’s arousal, she had nearly sent him over the edge. He can still feel her wet pussy on his hand and it makes his already hard cock twitch. He grips the hair of the female that is servicing him with her mouth and he rams into her harder. He’d had no choice last night but to take some entertainment. He couldn’t keep his sexual frustration bottled up for a moment longer. Axelle is driving him wild just by being in his presence. But just because he is with another bitch it doesn’t mean he is paying any attention to her. No, his eyes are only on the wall projection of his bound one. Who is now servicing herself in such an enticing manner, he knows that she is hoping he is watching her.

He pushes his cock further down the throat of the female and she gags. It irritates him, and he is done with her. He fucks her mouth hard then, enjoying hearing her choke and when the times comes, he doesn’t pull out, but instead lets his seed shoot down her throat and wrap itself around her essence. She is dead before he has pulled out of her mouth and when he pushes her away from him, she has shriveled up and as she hits the floor, she explodes into a cloud of dust.

Luc sneers down at her. That didn’t take long at all. Usually they have a bit more fight about them, but he supposes he wanted a weak one. One the total opposite of Axelle who is so strong it makes his heart pound. He knows that she will fight to the bitter end.

He watches as Axelle comes loudly--for his benefit no doubt--and then he waits. He waits to see what she will do next.

Unfortunately she doesn’t carry on, she just gets up and stalks into the en-suite bathroom slamming the door closed behind her.

He sighs and switches off. He should get ready himself and go to greet her. He will sit with her until the next phase kicks in and then it will be a game of wait and see.

***

Axelle climbs out of the shower and dries off. She stares into the brightly lit mirror above the sinks just to check she still looks like she should and she hasn’t turned into a female version of Darius. She wishes she knew what was going to happen to her. The anticipation is the worst part.

Flicking her long hair over her shoulder, she squeezes it out with a small towel and walks naked back into her bedroom.

She shrieks loudly when she sees Stanford lurking by her bed and when his bulbous eyes drop to her bare pussy, she shrieks even louder and holds the tiny towel out in front of her.

“Get out,” she yells at him.

Both Axelle and Stanford jump in surprise as the door suddenly bursts off its hinges and in storms the ruler of hell, looking for all the world like he is about to commit murder. When he sees that Axelle is in fact unharmed, just being leered at by an imp, she sees the relief pass across his face. It sends a warm shiver over her, but then she remembers how naked she is behind the small towel and how close Stanford is to her.

“What is going on here?” Luc thunders at Stanford and he quakes on his big feet.

“I just brought the lady breakfast,” Stanford stammers.

Lady?
Female, yes. Bitch, yes. Wench, absolutely, but lady? Nuh-uh. It doesn’t happen down here.

Axelle’s gaze bores into his head before she turns it on Luc. If she didn’t know better she would say he is avoiding her gaze.

Stanford points a shaky finger at the tray of food on the table and Luc calms visibly.

“Next time perhaps less lurking and wait for her to invite you in,” Luc reprimands his little familiar and sends him on his way.

“Yes sir,” Stanford mumbles with a bowed head and leaps off out through the gaping hole where the door used to be.

“Uhm,” Axelle says as Luc continues to stand there. “Look, I am all for you seeing what you created over here, but if you are just going to reject me again, turn around and let me get dressed.”

Luc snaps his fingers and she is instantly covered up in a white blouse and black pants with six-inch heeled black ankle boots. She looks amazing!

“Nice work,” she comments and discards the towel.

“Always,” he says to her.

“So, what now?” she asks a bit awkwardly.

“Now you eat,” Luc says and sits down at the breakfast table to wait for her.

Axelle sighs. She really wants to get this phase show on the road. “Do you know when?” she asks after picking the blueberries out of a muffin.

“No,” Luc says shortly.

“So I just sit around here and wait to die?” she asks with a sad laugh.

“No,” he says taking her hand. “
We
will sit here and wait for you to survive.”

“This really goes against the grain, you know. It’s very confusing,” Axelle remarks pulling her hand back.

“What do you mean?” Luc demands. “I have already told you, your body has to remain pure.”

“I’m not talking about the sex, Luc,” she says exasperated. “Although that is beyond annoying. I’m talking about how you seem to care about something. Even if it isn’t me exactly.”

Luc turns away from her and drums his fingers on the table. It is very against the grain for him, and he isn’t really all that pleased that she has sussed him out. Although, he hasn’t exactly been too subtle about it lately, which is his own damn fault. He wants to tell her that he doesn’t give a shit about her, but he knows the lie will show to her. He bites his tongue and then he hears a loud, “Whoop!” and a resounding thud above his head.

“What the fuck?” he barks turning back to Axelle, but she is no longer sitting next to him.

He looks up with a feeling of dread and she is above him, plastered against the ceiling in a ring of fire, her mouth open in a silent scream as the flames lick her perfect skin.

“Shit!” he exclaims as he stands up abruptly, the chair falling back heavily to the floor as he gapes at the scene above him. Axelle is writhing in agony as she is engulfed in the flames, but he can’t help her. There is nothing he can do but stand helplessly underneath her as she suffers.

The only feeling that Axelle has is pain. There is no shock or sadness that these are her last few seconds in existence. All she feels is the agony of hell fire tearing across her body.

She knows she isn’t really burning; it all has to be in her mind. The heat is imaginary. She clings to that as she continues to scream to Luc to help her, but there is no sound coming out of her mouth. She stares down into his bright blue eyes, that are wide with shock and she sees his helplessness. As she thrashes on the ceiling, trying to get away from the flames, she holds her hand out to him. She stretches as far as she is able to reach him and the last thing she sees before her eyes are burnt out of her head is his hand reaching up for her.

It’s not really happening
.
It’s not really happening
. It is all an illusion to break her. She has figured this out somehow. Her eyes are gone, her hair has been singed off her head, her lips have cracked and fallen off, her clothes are melting into her skin and she can feel it all. But somehow, she knows it isn’t real. Her rationale for this is that she would be completely useless to Luc as a burnt out corpse, there would be nothing left to go into phase four if this was real. So she clings onto that.
It’s not really happening
.

She has to fight it. She has to find the strength in her to push back the flames. They are starting to lick at her essence now through the gaping holes in her skull. Worming their way inside her, burning her lungs so that she cannot take another breath. She lets out a “whoosh” sound and then grits her teeth. They are still intact, but her tongue has flaked into ash at the bottom of her mouth.

Axelle has never cherished anything in her couple of centuries of being. She has coveted things, of course, like power and strength, but she has never really felt the need to keep something because she liked it. She knows she is dying now. She cannot fight the fire and as her life flashes before her mind’s eye she sees Slade, the slave that she enjoyed tormenting until he broke. She sees Lacey, the woman whose body she occupied on earth to go about her havoc-wreaking. She sees Evan, the cute Reaper who seems to care about her. But none of those things are enough for her to grab onto.

That is until Luc flashes before her. Not in his handsome, suave, human form, but the version of himself that she saw when he molded the bronze to her wrist. The creature from the bowels of hell that had at once terrified her and made her nearly cream herself for him.

He is the Devil. Her lord and master. A creature that, through no other reason except that he created her demonic essence, she owes her loyalty to.

And he needs her. He picked her out of all the others to do this task for him and she blindly accepted it because she knows it is important. She told herself she wouldn’t let him down and yet here she is giving in to this illusion. Ready to die.

She fixes her mind onto him. Both versions of him and she grinds her teeth even further down. She
will
fight this.

Axelle feels the flames recede from inside her form, leaving her essence to flicker and heal. She feels her tongue in her mouth again and she blinks her reformed eyes to see Luc still standing beneath her, worry etched into his features and his hand still outstretched to take hers.

It’s all the encouragement Axelle needs. He wants to save her and even if it is just because of what she is supposed to give him, it is enough that he just
wants
to. She peels her arms off the ceiling, the muscles in her arms screaming with the effort. She pushes back the flames with the strength of her mind and soon it is a simple ring of fire circled around her. She stretches her arms out to the sides and touches the ring, clasping it in her hands she pulls away from the ceiling and she floats down to the plush carpet, landing silently in the center of the circle on her feet, like a cat ready to pounce out.

She lifts her head up and the look of wonder on Luc’s face makes her grin wickedly, and with one quick leap, she exits the ring of fire and it dissipates into nothing.

Luc is on her the second she is out of the circle. He grabs her and roughly pulls her close to him, tenderly placing his hand on the back of her head as he pants softly into her hair.

“You made it,” he whispers to her.

Axelle feels a swell of pride go through her at his words and she is awfully content to be held by the most fearsome creature known to man and beast. It sends all sorts of emotions racing through her and she lifts her arms up to embrace him back, but before she can get her arms around him, he grabs her shoulders and pushes her away from him. He drops his hands and straightens his cuffs. His face has gone as cold as stone and with a stiff, “Well done,” he stalks off towards the gaping door-hole.

Well done? Well fucking done?
Who the fuck does he think he is? Axelle is enraged by his curt brush off. She has just endured literal hell for him and he gives her a “well done”!

She stamps off after him and through the hole-way into the corridor. She sees him walking towards the stairs and she races to catch up with him, her spiked heels clacking on the hardwood floor.

“You bastard,” she spits at him before she can stop herself. She sees his back stiffen and she brings her hand up to her mouth. Oops, that was not supposed to come out of her mouth. She might as well have shriveled up in the hell fire ring as he turns to her with a face of thunder.

***

Luc heard her coming, heard her heels on the floor behind him and the staccato beat told him she was angry with him. She has every right to be. Well done? What the fuck was he thinking? The fact is, he is thinking too much. About her. About her and what he plans to do with her once she has survived this test. He shouldn’t care; he isn’t capable of caring about anything except himself and producing an heir. He doesn’t even really care about the child itself, just the idea that he needs a son. And yet, this little bitch has turned his head in the most sickening way and he can’t turn it back. He stiffens his back as he hears her getting closer and then he grips the front of his jacket tightly as she spits out at him, “You bastard.”

Well, he can’t say he doesn’t deserve it, but who does she think she is using that tone with him? He turns to her, his worry over her ordeal boiling over into anger so that she can’t see his true feelings. Seeing her up there engulfed in those flames was…

He sees her flinch and step back, but she lifts her chin up, defiant as ever.

“What did you just call me?” he asks, taking a menacing step forward.

“I’m sorry,” she says meekly.

“Don’t be,” he responds but he doesn’t know where the words are coming from. “Say it again, you bitch.”

Axelle peers at him wondering what his game is. She is clearly trying to gauge whether or not he is being serious. Luc tilts his head towards her and she straightens up.

“You bastard,” she snarls. “Well done? Is that all you can say? Do you know what that was just like for me?” She gestures back towards the room. “And all you can say to me is ‘well done’.” She puts her hands on her slim hips and he finds himself gazing into her angry, blue eyes.

“Axelle, my dear,” he says shifting to put on the charm. “I have never witnessed anything quite so astounding in all of my existence. You are truly strong.”

“Err,” she says caught completely off guard by his compliment. “Yes, well, remember that for next time. I expect gifts showered upon me and champagne to celebrate my success.”

“And you will receive them,” he says to her taking her hand and kissing it briefly before he lets it drop back to her side and he vanishes from her sight. The heat between them is driving him to the point of distraction and he is eager to show her what sex with him is really like. He is starting to loathe the clinical copulation the ritual called for. The codex states no emotion can go into the joining of their bodies, negative or positive, as it will twist the binding. He hates the fact that he couldn’t bring her to a mind-blowing climax again and again so he could feel her clenching wetly around him.

He wipes his brow as he is starting to sweat again. He whisks off his suit and flexes his shoulders, much happier now that he is nude. He lights a cigarette, a vice that he rarely indulges in, but right now he needs it like he has never needed it before.

***

“Jackass,” Axelle mutters as she stares at the space Luc used to occupy. She couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. His features are usually so closed off it drives her mad. But she will forever remember the look of worry on his face earlier, and the tenderness with which he had held her when he knew she was safe. She hates that she is starting to have feelings for him because, for starters, she doesn’t “do” feelings. Secondly, neither does he. He is the Devil for fuck’s sake. If there is anyone in the entire universe who is bound to hurt her, it’s him. She is mistaking his kindness--if you could call it that--towards her. She has to keep remembering that it has nothing to do with her, but only what she can give him. She might be in awe of him, worship him as her creator, do whatever he asks when he asks, but there is no way she can ever make it anything more.

With a big sigh, she goes back to her room, but then she shudders as the vivid memory of her burning flesh comes back to her. She quickly turns on her heel and heads out towards the stairs.

She has managed to pass into the next phase so she is going to be shacked up here for a few more days yet until the next one. Boredom is her worst enemy, so Axelle decides to do a bit of exploring. Maybe she will learn a thing or two while she is here about Luc. No one really knows much about him. In fact, she only found out his name when he told her to call him “Luc”. He is just “the Devil” to common demons. Creator of their kind and their leader. Plain and simple.

As Axelle wanders down the sweeping staircase, she finds herself in the main hallway that she first appeared in the other week. Now that she has some time, she is eager to have a better look at the statues and other works of art that adorn these walls. She meanders over to a portrait of a strikingly beautiful woman, dressed in late 16
th
century garb, her chestnut, curly hair falling to her waist.

Axelle peers up at the painting finding it odd that it should be hung up here with all the other more pornographic pieces. She shifts her gaze to the very shocking painting placed next to the woman with an arched eyebrow. Something catches her eye and on closer inspection she discovers that the woman being impaled in both her front
and
back passages by the same horned and fanged creature that is tearing her breasts off, is in fact the demure looking lady hanging to the left.

Interesting. Did her breasts grow back or was that her death scene? She scoffs to herself because of course Luc would have just given her a new pair of tits. She assumes the creature is Luc, there is nothing to go on to say otherwise.

Axelle fixes her gaze back on the woman and wonders who she is. Someone obviously important enough to Luc that her portrait is hanging in his foyer. She feels a flash of jealousy and wonders if this is the little bitch to which he showed his true self.

She reaches out and brushes her fingertips lightly over the full lips of the woman. She pulls back quickly as it suddenly goes icy cold and she can hear a whispering coming from all around her, but she can’t make out the words.

Freaky. This is just a freaky, fucking house.

Axelle backs away and the keening stops and the temperature returns back to normal. With a shake of her head, she moves on, taking in all the gloriously depraved works wishing that she was immortalized on canvass and hung up in Luc’s foyer. Maybe if she completes this trial he will do her the honor.

Axelle stops dead as she spots the painting hanging up in the corner. It is of the creature that she saw during the binding ritual. She moves closer to it so she can have a good look at him. Very definitely a male, and very definitely well endowed. She licks her lips and tilts her head. She reaches out to touch this painting wondering if this one will give her a reaction like the one of the woman, when a deep, gravelly voice about two feet over her head says to her, “Don’t touch.”

She spins around and comes face-to-face with Darius’s armored chest.