'Tween Heaven and Hell (4 page)

“The Royal Court!”

He cocked his dark head again. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’re a member of the Devil Court.”

“That is correct.”

“And Deaver ran you out? I thought you royal devils were
more powerful than that.”

His laughter rumbled up and filled the room. “Do not even
think that inconsequential little nothing could overpower me. I left on my own
and for my own reasons. Which is why I summoned you.”

“Summoned my ass. You kidnapped me and I can’t believe you
let him run you out.” My own laughter wasn’t very rumbly, but it had a powerful
effect on my royal devil anyway. For a minute I thought I might have to use my
holy water after all.

He took a step closer to me and his hand was on my arm
before I could blink twice. I gasped at the electric jolt of his touch and
tried to pull the arm free. His golden face moved toward mine until I could
smell the warm, musky scent of his skin and taste the intoxicating heat of his
breath. The place where he held me was all tingly and the tingles were quickly
spreading up my arm. Although I still held the vial, he made no move to take it
from me.

I quickly realized that I would never be able to best him in
strength, so I would have to use wit and charm, two things which I usually have
in abundance, but which, under the onslaught of his pulsating gaze, I was
finding it really hard to conjure up.

His face changed slightly, looked more worried than angry if
that was possible, and he moved his lips toward my ear, whispering, “Do not be
amused by me, pretty Tweener, for it will be the end of you.” His hand on my
arm tightened briefly. The pain this caused would have brought a lesser woman
to her knees, but I was really tough so I just whimpered pitifully and spat
into his gorgeous face.

His head jerked back and his mouth opened, showing large,
white, extremely sharp looking teeth. I took a deep breath and prepared to die.
As he lowered the teeth toward my face, I closed my eyes, primed to accept the
searing pain. I jumped in surprise when, instead of eating my face, the evil looking
teeth clasped my lower lip and nibbled, gently. I thought it would be more than
I could stand, until his lips lowered over mine and then I realized I hadn’t
felt anything yet. The kiss was obscenely and outrageously sexual. His lips
were silky, like warm satin and soft like down pillows against my own,
surprised lips.

Where our lips met it felt like liquid fire and the fire
quickly spread down my body until my mind formed a picture of spontaneous
combustion. I wanted to pull away but the pleasure was too intense, too
powerful and I felt myself getting sucked into it. My arms came up and I
reached for him, pulling his long, hard body against mine, grinding into him
like a dog in heat.

I felt all semblance of restraint draining away as the hard
lines of his body melted against mine and I suddenly couldn’t breathe, couldn’t
get enough of him against me, into me, over me.

The vial of holy water exploded in my hand and I jumped,
pulling away from him with a gasp of surprise. I looked at the hand that had
been holding the vial and frowned at the trickle of blood that ran down my
palm. Without my ever seeing him move, he had hold of the hand and was running
his tongue across it. His eyes closed as he finished cleaning the last of the
blood off my palm and he smiled.

I knew what he’d done was really disgusting. I wanted to be
repulsed. I really did. But his hot, soft tongue had started the fire in my
belly again. As the mind-melting heat poured through me, I forced myself to get
pissed off, because somewhere in my fevered brain I realized that my soul was
at stake.

I stepped back suddenly, reached for the knife I had
strapped to my thigh and swung it toward his lecherous face. “You sonofabitch,
I warned you about getting into my head.”

He easily stopped the arm in mid-swing and chuckled softly
as he pried my fingers from around the knife. He flung it harmlessly away. I
heard it clang against a wall about fifty yards from where we stood. “I’m sorry
to disappoint you, pretty Tweener, but I didn’t enter your head that time. That
was all your own doing.” He moved away from me, laughing and motioned for me to
follow.

Me and my very red face decided it was the best thing to do
under the circumstances. We lowered our head and followed, keeping our
distance, albeit a little too late to save our pride.

* * * * *

The room we entered was even larger than the one we’d left.
The walls were covered in thick, black velvet draperies with golden tassels as
trim. Hanging from the draperies were dozens of tapestries, which told the
typical tales of devildom and their place in history and Hades. A particularly
large tapestry hung on the wall that served as the backdrop for a long, arced
table with at least a dozen huge, throne-like chairs standing empty behind it.
The chairs looked like they had been carried forward through time, with
intricate, flowery patterns carved into the dark, heavy wood of their backs and
fat feet and arms that were rippled and shiny with use. The seats were covered
with the same black velvet material that covered the walls. The carpet beneath
my feet was creamy white and as soft and thick as anything I’d ever walked on
before. Other than the raised table in the front of the enormous room, the room
was empty.

The largest tapestry, which had grabbed my attention when I’d
walked into the room, was a scene designed to return me to my previous
unwillingly tingly condition. It was a depiction of a fragile-looking,
pale-haired, pale-skinned young woman in a gauzy gown of some sort, who was in
the late stages of being completely seduced by a devil who looked not at all
unlike my own devil.

Even as I had the thought he laughed, as if he’d read my
mind. My face transformed itself into a scowl to cover my terror. Please tell
me he didn’t read my mind? As much as I knew about devils, my knowledge of
their royalty, the most powerful and evil of all devils, was sketchy. I made a
mental note, if I ever got out of this alive and unscorched, to find out more
about them.

But for now, I needed to concentrate on getting out of this.
I watched as a door just behind and to my left of the table opened and a line
of…creatures—for lack of a better word—began filing into the room.

The lesser devils came first. These were the devils who,
like my own beloved Emo, looked just as the bible and human history have always
depicted them. They were red-skinned, some with scales and some without, with
short, squat bodies and long, sharply pointed horns on their wide heads. I knew
from personal experience that those horns looked and felt like ivory up close
and pierced human flesh like a sharp needle through a butterfly.

The lesser devils come with varying degrees of humanity.
Some were little more than slavering canines, with long, sharp teeth that
served as constant funnels for saliva and their thought processes could be
compared to that of a cow’s or a pig’s. There was some intelligence there but
it was scattered and undisciplined.

Others, like my Emo, are very human in their appearance,
despite the red skin and horns and very intelligent. These devils are generally
of a higher rank and keep two or three of the lower devils as pets. This much
I’d learned in my research on devildom.

Then there were the royal devils. By far the most
intelligent and beautiful of the devils and therefore the most dangerous. Several
of these now filed in and sat in the chairs around the arc of the table. I was
very distressed to see that a few of the royal ones had angels chained to their
wrists. The angels were dressed in scarlet and black and were forced to keep
their eyes downcast. Several of them looked as if they’d been beaten. As I
looked at them, I couldn’t help wondering how they’d gotten there and why the
Big Guy wasn’t doing anything about it.

I suddenly realized that my devil had moved around the table
and, send me to Hades, he’d taken up a spot just to the right of an extremely
beautiful female devil, at the center of the table. I didn’t even have time to
wonder what this meant before she spoke.

“Prince Dialle, I trust you have kept our visitor well
entertained during her short wait?” The she-devil had the longest, blackest
hair I’d ever seen and she wore it in a thick braid down her back. I could see
the tail of it lying against the floor under her chair. Her heart-shaped,
golden face was framed in gentle curls of black and the entire outside curve of
her small, pointed ears was adorned with gold and jewel-covered earrings. She
was dressed, audaciously enough, entirely in white, from head to toe. Her outer
robe was completely sheer and fell in gentle folds to her feet, which were
covered in woven gold straps that climbed both of her slender calves to just
below her knees. Beneath the sheer material of her robe I could see the merest
triangle of denser fabric that served as her panties and a thin strap of the
same material, which covered just the center strip of her heavy breasts. She
was an incredibly beautiful she-devil, which meant that she was incredibly
dangerous.

My devil, apparently a Prince, smiled widely at me and
winked. My traitorous face assumed its cherry-red color again. “I believe we
entertained each other, my love.”

My love? My eyes narrowed at him and I suddenly wondered
what the she-devil would think of our mutual entertainment. I decided to find
out. “Yes. Our mating was very inspiring. He’s the best devil I’ve had this
week.”

The she-devil merely laughed. Apparently she was not the
jealous type. “She taunts you, Dialle. You have apparently gotten under her
lily-white skin.”

Prince Dialle didn’t look nearly so amused. “She has trouble
controlling her own emotions and she blames me for it. It is not her most
attractive trait.”

I felt an uncontrollable urge to stick my tongue out at him
but fortunately I refrained. That wouldn’t have been very attractive either.
“I’m losing patience with all of this.” I swung my arm around the room, for the
first time realizing that the devil rabble had continued to dribble in as my
attentions had been elsewhere, I was now a very small minority of one in a room
of about fifty evil beings. Not good odds even for me. Oh well, might as well
be eaten for a lion as a lamb. “I have a life and clients waiting. Why did you
drag me here?”

The she-devil smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach her
black eyes. “She has fire, don’t you think, Dialle?”

Prince Dialle gave me a look that reminded me strangely of
that aforementioned element and nodded mutely. Seems the she-devil had got his
tongue of fire.

“Please stop discussing me as if I wasn’t here. It really
pisses me off.”

She-devil laughed and merely squinted her eyes at me. The
effect was immediate and very disturbing. My knees buckled and went out from
under me. My back hit the soft carpet and jerked my leaden head after it. As I
looked up from my newly horizontal position, I could see, through blurry eyes,
that the entire ceiling was covered with naked people doing things you’d expect
a bunch of naked people to be doing. Figures.

I struggled to my feet, my head whirling with the effort and
grinned at her. “Not bad, but I’ve had better.”

The she-devil came to her feet with a snarl and her slender
arms came up. Suddenly a deep, incredibly sexy voice filled my mind. It took me
a minute to understand that he wasn’t speaking aloud. Shit, shit, shit. He was
in my head again.

Do not taunt her, pretty Tweener. She will kill you
without a thought.

Aloud he said, “She is not very bright, my love. Are you
certain that she is the one to help us?”

This distracted the she-devil enough so that she didn’t kill
me on the spot. Things were looking up.

“Unfortunately she is all we have. I have been told that she
is the one. We must make do.” She sat back down with a disgusted sigh.

“It’s just so hard to get good help these days.” Even to me
my voice sounded slurred and mushy like I’d been drinking all day.

My lovely prince chuckled and shook his head. “Yes, my love,
you are correct, she does have fire, but no sense to go with it. She will be
lucky to survive against Nerul.”

The voice filled my head again and I glared at him.

You are lucky I have reminded her that we need your
services. See if you can keep your mouth shut long enough to survive this
audience.

I really wanted to stick my tongue out at this guy.

Instead I raised my hands and tipped my head in her
direction obligingly. “Tell me, Princess, what can I do for you that you can’t
do for yourself?”

The look I got back really made me wish I had access to a
bathing pool full of holy water.

Chapter Five

When Evil Calls

I donned my pretty black dress, I donned my tall
leather boots,

I set out to fight my wicked foes and wound up in
cahoots.

“It all began about two thousand years ago,” Dialle said
with a straight face. “There was a war between the two royal courts and many
souls were lost. The war has continued, in one way or another since that first
battle. It shows no signs of ending, even now.”

He stood up and began pacing behind the long table. The
other devils watched him with avid faces as if they’d never heard the story
before either. Mostly I just watched the way his tight little butt moved under
the shimmery pants.

“The first Princess that we lost to Nerul was used for
pleasure and sport by the entire court. She held up surprisingly well, but
eventually even she could not withstand the abuse. Her soul fled her and feeds
our hatred for Nerul to this day.

“We lost a young Prince to Nerul next, as the result of a
war to avenge Princess Kaar. Prince Dev lasted only a few years and his soul
was too battered to join with us, so he is out there somewhere, tortured for
eternity.”