Hell's Phoenix (18 page)

“Beautiful, aren’t they? Lynx eyes.” Micah traced his thumb over one of her eyebrows, marveling at the exclusive shade, and shifted his hand to cup the back of her head. “They’ll become bolder when she fully amalgamates with her demon.”

“What’s a Lynx?” Phoenix pinched her chin between his thumb and finger, and turned her head to peer at her.

“Unique. Dangerous,” Madison responded, her voice scratchy. “Micah does nothing halfway.” She tugged her chin free of Nix’s grip.

“Correct. Lynx succubi feed off sex
and
magical infusions. She’s one of a kind, no other in existence. She’ll require both to survive. The more wizardry she ingests, the more powerful she becomes. A Lynx demon can wipe out Hell with its need to consume, unless it has a consort powerful enough to feed it. Madison’s lucky I’m powerful enough to keep her fed.”

“You bred me to be your consort?”

He nodded.

“My goodness. How far does your management of my life go?”

He ignored her question for a brief history lesson. “The first Lynx was crafted by God. Father crushed her into oblivion because he was jealous of her ability to grow more powerful, while he could not.” He tucked hair behind her ear. “I stole the
Pyxis
full of God’s blueprints before I fell.”

“What’s a Pick…sis?” Nix asked.

“
Pyxis
…p-y-x-i-s,” Micah clarified. “It’s kind of like a genie bottle. This particular one was a glassy jail cell that shifts colors as the substances inside moved. It housed God’s most lethal, unique, and extinct species. Mainly those he never planned to use again because they were too dangerous. I created hybrids out of many of them in the container. Plague and Skeletal demons are crafted from the
Pyxis
. Hybrids are always more volatile than the original.”

“I’m a hybrid?” Her pink tongue darted out and licked her lips.

“Yes.”

“But how? Mother is succubus and Daddy is human?”

“Magic, kitten. Celeste enthralled your father, so I could feed Bruce my blood while he fucked her. She was already full of my blood and angel power—seraph by the way—and I fed the
Pyxis
into her womb as they created you. The rest is history.”

Madison’s surprise over his revelations had her mouth parting, but only silence emerged. She shocked him when she grabbed his nape and tugged him close. “I want your seraph inside me like Nix had his in me at the Sherlock bar.”

Startled by the request, Micah forgot to breathe or blink. “Nix’s power is called messian. It’s different.”

“Don’t care. I want yours.”

He inhaled the small puffs of her breath hitting his face. He’d never shared his angel seraph with anyone other than Celeste, but he’d known Madison would need his if she turned out to be Lynx.

“Phoenix could only do that because you had an open wound.” Micah kneaded her nape. “I’ll need to cut you to give it to you.” She could take his seraph once she figured out how. He wouldn’t teach her how to take what she wanted until he’d gained her trust. They were a long way from that moment.

Madison clutched the wrist she’d fed from and slapped his palm against her neck. “Use one of your claws to wound me. Wherever you chose. Just do it now, Micah, please now.” Her pelvis undulated against him and he resisted ripping her clothing off and thrusting inside her. Fast sex had been his mistake the first time he took her. He wouldn’t repeat it. “I’m so hungry.”

“It’s an experience like you’ve never known.” Previously, when he ingested an angel’s force, it boosted and strengthened his power.

“I almost climaxed from Nix’s.”

Micah ground his teeth together. “There’s no guarantee how it’ll affect you. Are you prepared to become fully demonic?”

She nipped his chin, surprising him with her playfulness. “Nix’s messian was so very, very,
very
good.” She ran her tongue across his jaw, and he slanted his head so she could continue down his neck to nuzzle at his collarbone. Releasing one button on his shirt, she kissed the exposed flesh before slanting her gaze upward. “Whose will be better? Yours or Nix’s?”

Not an answer to the question he asked, but her attempt at seduction intrigued him.

“One ‘very’ was enough, Madison.” As much as he disliked her enjoying anything from Phoenix, her wanton display fascinated him. Real or fabricated, it was unlike the woman he’d once shared a bed with.

She grinned and the teasing gleam in her eyes rendered him spellbound. He’d have paid any fine to see that expression on her face after their marriage. The change in her was significant in the eight years since leaving her, and the differences enthralled him.

A startled gasp fell from her lips and she jerked toward Phoenix. “Just like I do this very, very,
very
good, huh, Mads?”

“Nix, no!” Madison released Micah and shoved her hands into the blood.

Curious what occurred beneath the surface, Micah removed his hand from her neck and lowered it into the pool, while keeping his palm on the back of her head. He followed Phoenix’s arm and discovered the man’s hand buried inside her pants. Madison had Phoenix’s arm in a death clench.

“Nix, this is wrong.” Her breath hitched and her bottom lip trembled, but Phoenix’s hand began to shift. A tiny whimper exited her lungs. “
Jhim. Mqauja jhim
.”

Good thing Phoenix understood Xapil, or he’d never have understood her final sentence: ‘
Stop. Please stop
.’ But the undulation of her hips proved she wanted him to continue.

Micah chuckled over the shift in languages, and he doubted she was aware she’d switched between them. Removing his hand from her head, he laced his fingers around her wrists. He pulled her arms up and out of the pool and placed them on the ledge behind her.

Madison’s mouth parted on a soft moan and her head dropped back. The blood rolled, indicating the movement of her pelvis increased. “His fingers are inside you?”

As an answer, she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Not yet,” Phoenix said. “I’m teasing her clitoris with the lightest of strokes.”

He kissed Phoenix and she made a shocked sound, proving she’d opened her eyes at some point. “Our woman,” he said to the Ark, who grinned and nodded.

Micah turned to Madison. Was she surprised by their affection? He clasped her head and embraced her, dipping his tongue between her lips. Keeping his eyes open, he watched the shift of expressions flitter across her face. Resistance furrowed her brow, and melted into yearning, smoothing away the lines along her forehead.

Micah parted from her mouth, and stared at her until her lashes fluttered upward. Up close, he held her stare and he muttered against her lips, “Penetrate her, Phoenix.”

Her ragged sigh rent the air. A soul screamed in unison with her, beseeching mercy. Micah released her head and plunged his arms into the blood. The snap of her jeans gave way easily and he snagged the zipper down. As he shoved his hands into the backside of her pants, Phoenix tangled his fingers in her hair and turned her face toward him for a kiss she didn’t resist.

Micah dragged the wet denim down her legs and grasped each ankle one at a time, to gently step her out of them. Caught up in Phoenix’s touch, she offered no protest.

Leaving the jeans on the bottom of the flooring, he cupped her calves and ran his palms upward. He gripped the backs of her thighs and couldn’t miss the distinct movement of her hips rocking against the thrust of Phoenix’s fingers.

For a moment, Micah watched them, one unending kiss, as Phoenix pleasured her beneath the surface. “My turn, Phoenix.”

The Ark lifted his head and she reached out to pull him back to her. Phoenix groaned and kissed her hard, before tugging her head back by her hair and staring down at her sensual features. “Which part is your turn, Micah?”

“Everything.” Phoenix shot a hard glare at Micah. “You’ll get your chance soon, lover. Do you continue to desire my angel power, Madison?”

No response came from Madison. Head tilted back, her eyes were glazed with pleasure, soft about the edges, and lips moist from Nix’s kisses.

“Do you still want Micah’s power, baby?” Phoenix asked.

“Yes.” The word came out as the barest whisper.

Micah nodded and he shifted her into his arms. She came willingly, but reluctance tainted her eyes and when Phoenix removed his fingers, she protested with a raspy, “
Li
!”
No
.

“You’re fucking beautiful, Madison,” Micah said.

Madison clenched her fingers in his shirt. Pink Lynx eyes stared at him, desperation for release having turned her breath choppy. Her succubus needed one energy, while her Lynx demanded another.

“Don’t let him stop.” She tugged against his shirt as if to emphasize her demand.

Micah kissed her brow, shifting his hand down her left arm. He flattened his palm over the top of her hand, and turned hers palm-side up, exposing the underside of her wrist. “No other should be touching you while I give you my seraph.”

“Please give it to me.”

“I only give it to you as a renewal of our marriage vows. Do you accept or decline, Madison?”

“It’s my choice?”

“Yes.” Micah circled his thumb along the flesh of her wrist.

He shifted his other hand to clutch her hip, keenly aware only a thin strip of silk separated him from touching her intimately.

“That hand moves no closer to the inside of my legs.”

The slightest tremble of her body hinted at her indecision.

“You would allow Phoenix to touch you there, but not your husband?”

“I trust Nix. He didn’t abandon me. You did.”

How flawed her perception is.
“I never abandoned you, Madison. I made sure the criminal and tax fraud investigations were dropped against you when I vanished. I have always been with you, on the sidelines, watching and protecting, waiting for you to become what you were meant to be.”

“You could be lying.”

“Ingest my seraph and you’ll know the truth of everything.” Consuming his angel spirit would grant her fragments of his soul, like memories, so lying to her would be impossible once she dined upon it. “All my preparation and plans will be revealed. How hard it was for me to leave you, but my departure was necessary for you to achieve your destiny.”

“Mmmhmm…you enjoyed choking me and accosting me, Micah.”

“Necessary evils to force you to follow destiny’s path. Never something I enjoyed.”

“Sooo not buying that answer.” She glowered at him. “Your angel name will be revealed to me as well?”

Did she plan to use it against him? “My angel name is Beliel.”

Madison’s eyes widened just a fraction and her mouth parted. What aspect of his name shocked her? That he gave it freely? Or his biblical identity? Because he wasn’t an angel to be fucked with lightly.

“Beliel is a powerhouse in Hell.”

Phoenix stroked her hair. “Beliel is a god, baby.”

Madison shot Phoenix a grimace, but Micah ignored him.

“How do you feel about that, kitten?” He hoped his status excited her.

“Your seraph will make me stronger.”

Not a direct answer, but at least she recognized the immensity of his power.

“Zen says he couldn’t kill you. Is that because your seraph is so strong?”

“It’d be a lot easier to answer all your questions by giving you what you desire.”

Madison gnawed on the inside of her bottom lip, contemplating him. “In order to acquire your seraph I have to accept the renewal of our marriage vows.”

Micah nodded. Madison stared at him a long while as souls screeched in the background. He couldn’t begin to assess her thoughts, which disturbed him. He’d read her easily before leaving her.

“A very high cost for a man I cannot bring myself to trust.”

“I’ve given you many reasons to lose faith in me, Madison.” No question he had. All his decisions were based on the prophecy that said she’d either be his biggest triumph or his downfall. But she’d never align with him until she faced a life without him at her side. Because of the divination, he’d been forced to leave her. “Gifting you my seraph will leave me raw and exposed beneath your regard, while providing you a reason to trust me again.”

“Empty words, Micah, if you’re lying to me.”

He inclined his head. “Fair enough. Consent to my sigil and I’ll give you a taste of my seraph for you to make a more informed decision.”

“Consent granted.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Zen had no idea how to handle Amos’s despondency. He’d spoken one word since waking—“Momma”—before slipping into a catatonic state.

Alessandra and Zoe both tried to cajole him into communication, but he curled into a tighter ball on the sofa and retreated into himself. Gage patted his head like he would a puppy dog and offered up food like they were bits of treats.

Georgie sat beside him, gripping his hand, offering support even though he resided in some unknown vacuum. James had stormed out thirty minutes before when Georgie refused to relay anything of her vision concerning Phoenix. Gage had gone after his dad to try and calm him down.

Zen didn’t have the time or patience to worry about the humans’ emotions. Madison and Amos were his only concerns. Georgie’s newest visions wavered between two outcomes. In the worst of the two, the world would buckle to a new religion and Nix would become a favored prophet. In the other, Nix was saved, but a new religion came to power anyway. He wanted a prophecy that involved Madison’s salvation.

He rubbed his thumb across the crystal in his pocket. Amos remained asleep, unable to give him his opinion of the future, so he fumbled with varying outcomes, hard choices he wanted no part of. Giving Madison time to pull her act together went against his purpose, but he couldn’t bring himself to snap the crystal containing her soul either. Not when he preferred to put his faith in Madison’s humanity and her near-inhuman strength of will.

Zen moved away from his stance in the corner of the room. “Are you getting anything off him, Georgie?”

“No. It’s as if he’s not here.” She swallowed, a nervous bob flicking in her throat. “I’m getting no signature of his soul at all. And haven’t since I sat down with him.”