Demon's Kiss Read online

  She was closer than she knew in the title she gave him, another of the many things Asmodeus knew he must tell her someday soon.

  Amused, Asmodeus said, “What service is that? I can think of many.”

  “Oh?” she said, clearly intrigued.

  “Hmmmm.”

  “There is this one,” she said, as, scooting closer, she nibbled lightly at his nipple. A bright spark of pleasure shot through him as she ran her tongue around it, sucked and nipped at it.

  She slid slowly down his body, tasting his skin, her soft, warm tongue lapping at him. His belly tightened and Asmodeus found the tide had turned on him. It was she who seduced him now.

  He groaned as she dipped down to his navel so his hardening cock nestled between her full breasts. Pressing them together around his shaft, she arched her back and rocked so her breasts stroked him. He went rock hard in the instant she tipped her head down and licked the head of his cock as it speared between those full white globes.

  His body tightened even further as she fucked his cock with her breasts and her hot, wet mouth. She licked him like an ice-cream cone, lapped up each dot of pre-cum with a smooth glide of her tongue across the head and the slit.

  Asmodeus thought he would lose his mind with the sensation of her tongue sweeping across him, the silken softness of her breasts around his cock.

  “Demon of Lust, my ass,” she muttered, and gave him a glinting, mischievous upward glance.

  With a groan, Asmodeus said, “That can be arranged too.”

  Those blue eyes looked up at him and then she sucked as much of the head of his cock into her pretty mouth as she could. His balls drew up hard, tightened as his body bucked, jolted and he groaned with the pure pleasure of it. He doubted he could get any harder.

  In one motion he rolled onto his back at the same time that he lifted her with his hands around her ribs. He rammed her down hard onto his rigid shaft so he was deep inside her in an instant. He lifted her once more and then drove her deliciously tight pussy down on his cock.

  “Ride me, Gabriel,” he demanded. “Ride me hard.”

  Gabriel was more than willing to oblige, his hands on her hips giving her that much more impetus, driving her down harder each time onto his stiff cock.

  That long, thick shaft drove up inside her as his hands came up to crush her breasts, to trap her nipples between his fingers. He squeezed them hard, tortured and tormented them and she squirmed on his cock even as she rode it.

  Beneath her, Asmodeus’ beautiful face was rapt, lost in pleasure, everything else forgotten.

  Gabriel smiled.

  As quick as a snake he reared up to suck her breast into his mouth. He suckled hard as his hand on the back of her neck held her in place and he fucked her deep and hard in time to each pull of his mouth. Spreading his legs, he spread her thighs, grabbed her ass cheeks to spread them, and his tail speared up into her ass.

  She came with a shriek and shuddered as Asmodeus drove up, his hot cum shooting into her as he quivered in ecstasy against her.

  Chapter Six

  Asmodeus woke up hungry and drowsily drew Gabriel close. His mouth settled over her throat to nuzzle. His fangs pierced the thin skin easily and his mouth flooded with her sweet taste. With a sigh of contentment, he pulled her close and settled in to feed, the sweet warm taste of her essence deeply satisfying. To his delight, she sleepily snuggled closer and angled her throat to make it easier for him. His hands drifted over her, teased her nipples as much to caress as for his own pleasure.

  Her arm curled up around his neck to pull his mouth harder against her.

  To his surprise, more venom spurted from his fangs as they penetrated her and she arched in pleasure as it seared through her veins. His body knew more than he did and was eager to claim her completely.

  Her breasts swelled against his hands.

  Reluctantly, he lifted his mouth from her.

  “By the gods, you’re sweet, my angel,” he murmured against her ear.

  She sighed. “I love this.”

  It was the first time she had said as much and Asmodeus’ heart lightened, eased. There was that about the venom that allowed him to feed from her so freely, but even so, it was something to hear her say the words, to know it gave her so much satisfaction too.

  He also grew stronger with each feeding. It had been a long time since he had felt such power. There was a ways to go but his Gabriel was giving him strength again. Strength such as he had not felt in millennia. Strength enough, perhaps, and soon, to throw off Templeton’s yoke.

  Once he would have been strong enough to resist, but he’d been caught by surprise and after so long without his one, his mishea, by his side, he had weakened. Any human female would do, but his beloved, she was more, far more.

  Now he had her and it was sweet.

  They might still win free. He had hope, finally, of escaping his durance vile.

  Dreamily, Gabriel smiled as she wallowed in the softness of his lips on her throat, of his fangs piercing it again, of each draw on it, on the rise and sinking flow of her blood in her veins, oddly pleasurable as he drank from her. A little shiver went through her as Asmodeus’ warm mouth closed more tightly on her and he fed in earnest. A rush of delight went through her with each steady pull of his mouth.

  She quivered, trembled. Asmodeus feeding on her was such a pleasure.

  Surrendering to Asmodeus, Gabriel let each sweet roll of bliss wash through her, her arms tight around him.

  They both heard the distant doors open, sensed the change in the air with a jolt.

  Quickly, Asmodeus withdrew his fangs, gave her a swift kiss and clothed her once again as footsteps echoed over the marble.

  As with the day before, Templeton insisted Asmodeus accompany him on another journey.

  Gabriel watched them go, frowning and chewing on her lip speculatively.

  It was that kind of greed that had led to her suspicions of Templeton, but how, Gabriel wondered, did one prove that magic was involved in a court of law?

  Gabriel watched Asmodeus’ broad back disappear once again into the surrounding darkness. She knew he didn’t dare look back or reveal how important he thought her.

  Then they were gone.

  One of Baker’s men brought her the only meal of the day and she ate it without tasting it as she watched the movements of the men.

  Most of them just stood idly, their weapons pointed downward. Before, they had been silent, alert, but now with the boss gone they talked and joked with each other easily as they had not the day before.

  It was a good sign—they had relaxed. They clearly didn’t view her as a threat any longer.

  The Book of Demons stood on the podium. Without Templeton’s minion, no one bothered it. No one watched it. They didn’t consider it important. Gordon Templeton did but his people didn’t. They didn’t understand it.

  With little to do but think, Gabriel went over everything Asmodeus had said to her, everything he had told her. An idea, a plan slowly formed in her head. It might possibly work. It would depend on a lot of things, but first and foremost she needed to know more.

  “Bathroom?” she asked.

  This time Baker left the duty to his men, assigning three of them to cover her. She might have been able to take two of them but three big men were impossible, even with her skills, not without one of them shouting a warning. As she didn’t know the layout of the building and she didn’t need to try yet with Asmodeus away, she was grateful the opportunity hadn’t presented itself.

  As before, they left her alone in the bathroom. It was her only chance for privacy.

  Turning on the shower to cover any sounds, she took a gamble.

  Asmodeus had said his brothers listened for him. If she could speak to Asmodeus mind to mind, could she speak to those others? She wouldn’t have much time to try. But if they were looking for Asmodeus, listening for him? He had said Templeton was prepared for them. But that was with Asmodeus himself present and within the cir
cle. There was no reason for Templeton to think they would answer her. And it was very likely they wouldn’t since she wasn’t a demon. Daemonae.

  She had to try. Either it would work, or it wouldn’t. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

  Concentrating, she ran the name of every demon she could think of through her mind, grateful now for all that research she had done while investigating Templeton. She called to them in the same way she thought with Asmodeus, particularly Ashtoreth, and poured into it the sense of him she’d gained from Asmodeus, with admonitions for quiet. Hoping and praying they would hear her.

  Just the thought of Asmodeus made her ache in so many ways.

  And then, astonishingly, she wasn’t alone.

  To her stunned amazement, she suddenly shared the bathroom with several very tall, very large, very muscular…

  Demons.

  Unmistakably. Demons. Daemonae. Horns, tails, beautifully sculpted faces, gleaming, magnificently muscled bodies—red, black, gold…all of it. Everything. And tall. Massive. All of them.

  One of them most especially.

  His strong, almost Asian features stark, grim, sharp-boned and stern, his brilliant eyes golden and flecked with sparks of fire. A good many people would have found him more than a little intimidating. Some would have found him terrifying.

  “Aren’t any of you small?” she complained as she looked at the demons grouped around her.

  To her surprise the grim one chuckled and shook his head in both amazement and amusement. That smile transformed his face completely from fierce and implacable to almost friendly.

  “No.” His voice was a deep rumble.

  Like Asmodeus, he was beautiful but the lines of his face were far more angular and the slant to his eyes spoke more of the East than the West. His long, ebony hair gleamed against skin the same shade as Asmodeus’ skin but with shades of gold running beneath it that shimmered as if he were living flame. His eyes were molten gold in a stern, almost cruel and seemingly unforgiving face, save for that chuckle. And the sparkle of amusement in his eyes.

  That seemingly grim face didn’t even make Gabriel flinch, especially after seeing that brief flash of humor.

  In her career she had hunted stone-cold killers with faces as innocent and pretty as a choirboy’s and predatory souls with eyes as cold and empty as a shark’s. She had seen a boy as young as thirteen kill without thought and a man with harsh, rough features throw himself selflessly in the line of fire for another.

  There was an air of strength and command about this one though that reminded her strongly of Asmodeus.

  He bore scars on him too, as did Asmodeus, but his were older. Far older. She remembered what Asmodeus had said about what the priests had done to some of the Daemonae. To one in particular. And she shuddered inwardly.

  Ashtoreth.

  Seeing the scars on him, she understood and her heart bled for him.

  That Daemonae studied her in turn.

  “I am Ashtoreth,” he said. “You have news of Asmodeus?”

  So she’d been right.

  Ashtoreth. She remembered the shadows in Asmodeus’ eyes when he’d talked of the past. Ashtoreth been one of those the priests had summoned with the Book and tortured. The marks they had left on him were unmistakable.

  There was a cold and terrible fury in his eyes when he mentioned Asmodeus.

  “Sssh,” she said and gestured for him to keep his voice down. “Yes.”

  Another of them looked at her slightly askance, his skin like polished ebony, with shimmers of silver that slid beneath it like moonlight on a primordial lake. In the cold light his eyes were a lambent silver touched with aqua.

  “I’m Ba’al. Hearing your warning, we put silence around this room.”

  There was no doubt in Gabriel’s mind that Asmodeus had been correct in his description of his people.

  Every single one of them were tall, gorgeous, sexier than hell, beautifully built and generously endowed beneath the light, open vests and loose, drawstring pants they wore.

  Asmodeus had been right in more than one way.

  Gabriel’s body responded nearly automatically to them, to the Daemonae, to so much testosterone, to so many whirling, glowing eyes, twitching tails and flared wings in the same room.

  Intense sexual heat flashed through her.

  But she belonged to Asmodeus. She was his.

  Already her heart ached for him, yearned for him.

  Was it possible she truly loved him? In so short a time?

  There was an undeniable connection between them. She knew his mind now as she knew no other, intimately. You couldn’t lie, mind to mind. She knew his honor, his courage, his determination.

  A kind of breathless wonder filled her, a sudden stillness, a certainty, as both heart and soul lightened.

  She took a deep breath.

  Her career had always been important to her, she was good at what she did and she knew it. She was also a woman in a field dominated by men. And a small woman at that. Where a man could be merely good, she had to be outstanding. She dared not make the kinds of mistakes in relationships a man could make, could not stand the slightest stain on her record or have her judgment called into question. So work had taken up all her time and there had been no room for anything but the most casual relationships, all kept firmly separate from work.

  The few men who had come close had, in the end, not matched the qualifications Gabriel required—a sense of honor, intelligence and a sex drive that could match her own.

  Until now.

  She couldn’t deny the truth. She had fallen in love with Asmodeus.

  But that was for later.

  Gabriel looked at those who had come.

  “Well, you won’t believe this,” she said, with a wry grin, “but my name is Gabriel.”

  Every one of them straightened a little to stare at her in bemusement, and a few with outright amusement, including Ashtoreth for all his apparent sternness. His features lightened. It was just so startling, that change.

  “Truth,” she said, holding up her hand as she would if she were taking an oath.

  Shaking his head, Ashtoreth said, smiling, his tone amused, “Trust Asmodeus to find himself an angel for his mishea.”

  Despite the circumstances, she had to smile back but time was growing short. She had to hurry this up.

  “I need your help if you want to set him free.”

  Once more she was the focus of a dozen or so lambent eyes.

  Another of them looked at her as if she were insane and said, “Help? He is our prince. Of course we will help.”

  Prince? There was no time to think about that, but suddenly a lot of other things fell into place. Not least of which was that Templeton would not have summoned a lesser demon when he could have a prince. It shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise.

  “Ba’al,” Ashtoreth said sharply, his golden eyes glowing with fury. “Asmodeus, he is a prisoner?”

  Gabriel nodded. “But not for long if this works. It might be a trap to catch more of you as Asmodeus was caught but there may be a way if we move fast.”

  “There is no risk we will not take for Asmodeus,” Ashtoreth said.

  If Asmodeus could conjure up those firepots, could they conjure up her gun, her badge? The picture of them was in her head, she longed for them, felt naked without them. It was something she hadn’t dared to consider when she was with Asmodeus as it was extremely unlikely that Templeton’s watching men would have failed to notice.

  “Can any of you get my weapon? My badge?”

  A gesture and Ashtoreth produced both, her gun in her holster.

  Like Asmodeus and the firepots, they were suddenly just there in his hand.

  Magic.

  Gabriel blinked.

  “Damn,” she said in surprise as she took them.

  Ashtoreth looked at her. “The picture of them was clear in your head.”

  After all she’d seen it was still startling.

  With
a shake of her head, she maintained focus.

  She had always carried light, small-caliber weapons, because there was no point in her wrists aching when she needed to keep them steady, and second because, if you were good enough, that should be all you would need.

  She was good enough.

  There wasn’t much time. She concealed both beneath the loose folds of the dress.

  “Can you get the iron off him?” she asked.

  Knowing how it chafed him, she didn’t know if any of them could touch it either.

  His horror reflected in his voice, Ashtoreth said, tightly, “They put iron on him?”

  Shadows moved in those golden eyes, fiery sparks whirling as his face set.

  Gabriel nodded.

  Grimly, he nodded and said, “We can.”

  Letting out a long, slow breath, Gabriel looked at them. It wasn’t the first time she had directed an operation like this, but never with demons…Daemonae.

  It had not been her intention to call them into the circle, but if she could somehow manage to summon them while outside it…

  For a moment she considered having them try to take the place but it was too much of a risk. There was too great a chance a warning would get out. With Asmodeus still out there, she couldn’t, didn’t dare, take the chance that Templeton would kill him or hold him hostage. Not with the risk to his people. Or him.

  “Do you have a plan?” Ashtoreth asked.

  She looked at him steadily and nodded. It was what she did. She outlined what she had in mind.

  Those golden eyes met hers evenly.

  He inclined his head in respect, eyes glowing.

  * * * * *

  The land they drove through was heavily wooded, the trees lush and green. It was such a contrast to the barren landscape to which Asmodeus had become accustomed. With a sigh, he looked out the window of the limousine and up at the clear blue sky. He could almost feel his wings flex, the yearning to be free was so intense.

  Except his wings were not there.

  He looked at the faint reflection of his face in the glass of the window. As much as it was his own, in a way, it had been so long since he had seen this human face that it was almost as unfamiliar to him as a stranger’s. The lines, planes and angles of it were his, but the color was wrong, no horns sprouted from his forehead, and his wings did not rise behind him. He flexed his hands and felt the iron shift on his wrists.