Mona Lisa Awakening

Chapter Twenty One

I awoke in twilight darkness, terribly weak, chained naked to the ground, my clothes in sliced tatters around me. The air was like the arid heat of the desert. We were outside, in a courtyard of some sort, a ring of faces in various colors shading from light brown to deep bronze watching me with hostile curiosity a short distance away. It took a moment before I realized what it was about the place that bothered me, besides the demon dead, that is. There were no bright colors. No living green grass, no blue sky, no yellow or red leaves. Everything was muted, dampened, darkened, until there was almost no color at all. The only thing that stood out down here was my very white, living flesh and enhoused within it, my very red, flowing blood.

Kadeen paced beside me, a dark creature of menace with red-stained fangs and bloodied nails. He was different from the other demon dead who rather looked like a tanned version of myself. Kadeen bulged with unnaturally strong muscles, more animal than man. His face was oddly distorted, as if a beast was bursting out from within, his forehead large and bulging, his brow jutting. And those red eyes that glowed with an unnatural luster. He was demon unmasked.

"I was supposed to kill you," Kadeen said, his voice grating like rusty iron, as if it was hard for him to speak in that form. "But I decided to use you instead to lure Halcyon, my enemy, out from his lair. I have been challenging him for the last one hundred years ever since he killed my father in challenge, but he never bothered to accept it, considering me far beneath his notice. But now Halcyon will meet me. You are what he fancies. You are my bait to draw him out to this battle for supremacy."

Kadeen stilled. "He comes." He bent down to me. Bloody teeth gleamed and he snapped his fangs viciously at me. I jumped, unable to help myself, and screamed. The chains held me and I could not break free though I pulled and strained until my wrists and ankles were raw and bleeding.

"Scream again," Kadeen commanded and roughly squeezed my breast with bruising force. His sharp nails pierced through my skin like knives.

I screamed with helpless hatred and rage. Then screamed with horror as Kadeen's teeth ripped my throat. The pain was excruciating. He fed voraciously, drinking my blood. There was a curious buzzing in my head and everything seemed to swirl.

"Enough. I am here." Halcyon's quiet voice pierced the night, jerking the demon from me. Kadeen faced the Demon Prince with fierce hatred and grim satisfaction, my blood dripping from his fangs.

Halcyon looked the same here in Hell, I noticed with a distant floating detachment. White silk shirt, black coat, elegant trousers. That same calm golden face I'd first seen in the forest amid the sunshine. Halcyon glanced at me once then looked away.

"I challenge you." Kadeen grunted, seething with eager ferocity, high and powerful on the fresh blood that I had unwilling donated.

"I accept." With unhurried ease, Halcyon undid his diamond cufflinks, unbuttoned his shirt and stepped gracefully out of his soft, calf-length leather boots.

"How did you know where to find Mona Lisa," Halcyon asked.

"Mona Louisa told me she would come to the orphanage. She wanted me to kill the new Queen so she would get her territory back."

"Mona Louisa again. What a nuisance she is becoming." Halcyon murmured.

It seemed an impossible match. A slim elegant man facing a towering beast. Then that part of Halcyon fell away even as his silk shirt fell to the ground. I felt a rush of energy and Halcyon grew in size and width, swelling with brutish muscles until he stood monstrously large, even taller than Kadeen. Maybe eight feet. His forehead widened and thickened, a vein bulging prominently down the center. His brow jutted and my comfortable lassitude that I had fallen into ripped away. Halcyon's eyes hazed red and his face twisted in a silent snarl, displaying fangs that were ivory white and impressive as hell. Then the brutish rage smoothed out and his eyes returned to that calm midnight black.

They lunged at each other, a blur of speed almost too fast to follow, their heavy bodies meeting in the air and rolling to the ground a few yards away, shaking the earth beneath me with the impact of their combined weight. Claws slashed and blood ran. Kadeen howled with rage and threw Halcyon off him. The Demon Prince rolled to his feet with fluid grace, at peculiar odds with his beastly appearance, and sprang and tackled Kadeen in a haze of motion. They roiled on the ground, further away from me, each trying to get atop the other, Kadeen slashing with his claws, snarling and cursing, Halcyon fighting in a cold, freezing silence that was somehow scarier than Kadeen's hot rage.

"Enough," Halcyon said suddenly, as if he was tired of playing.

All I caught was a swift sharp movement that abruptly shut Kadeen up mid-snarl. There was a stunned, uncomprehending look on the smaller demon's face for a long, stretched-out moment. Then Kadeen's head fell off and rolled to the ground. Blood, the color of dark burgundy under Hell's twilight sky, seeped out beneath it. I gave a muffled shriek, unable to tear my gaze from that head, from those eyes. Those red, burning eyes that, dear merciful God, still held awareness and watched as Halcyon proceeded to slice off Kadeen's arms and legs with swift, lethal precision. Watched as the severed limbs fell in bloody, chunky pieces to the ground. Watched with fear-wide eyes as Halcyon walked over to him and drove both talons into his skull with one forceful, piercing thrust. Those eyes finally closed as Halcyon cracked open the thick bone of Kadeen's skull several inches to reveal soft, wet brain and oozing cerebral fluid. Just as I was breathing out a sigh of relief, those terrible eyes flashed open once more in awful awareness.

Halcyon tipped back his head and released a blood-curdling howl. Fierce, joyous baying answered in the distance unearthly cries that made my skin want to detach itself from off my flesh and crawl away just to escape whatever was coming.

"Feed him to the Hell hounds," Halcyon ordered. His rough, gravelly voice, a hoarse parody of his usual smooth, cultured tone, made me flinch. And that one involuntary ripple of movement from me tore away Halcyon's cool facade and revealed the seething emotions within. Hot, burning rage poured out from Halcyon in roiling waves until the very air quivered. His flaming eyes burned so hotly it seemed as if they would surely sear flesh. The other demons seemed to think so as well. They faded away, all but two males who quickly gathered up all of Kadeen's many parts and hurriedly took them off into the woods, as if they too could not wait to escape their prince's wrath.

Halcyon walked to me and knelt down, so close and so big that I felt like a small, fragile doll beside him. The chains that I had not been able to free myself from looked ridiculously tiny in his hands. Hands that spanned more than three times the length of mine.

With one yank, Halcyon snapped the chains easily and removed the manacles, his big hands accomplishing the task with unexpected gentleness. I was free, but couldn't seem to move. His red eyes, set deep in that beastly face, touched upon my torn and swollen neck, my bruised and bloodied breast, moving slowly down my body, reminding me vividly aware once more of my nakedness.

I closed my eyes, unable to do anything else. A moment later, I felt silk touch my skin. I opened my eyes to find Halcyon's shirt covering me.

I sat up and flung myself against Halcyon, hot tears roiling down my face. "I am sick of men stripping away my clothes and chaining me up," I said fiercely, my face buried against the hard ridges of his abdomen.

Halcyon took a deep breath and shuddered. Energy prickled my skin. As Halcyon changed back, shrinking once more to normal size, I found myself held against his chest, my eyes level with his throat now. I gazed up into black midnight eyes, into Halcyon's dear familiar face. He lifted me into his arms and I was never so aware of man's greater strength.

He carried me out of the courtyard and I had a brief impression of entering an ancient dark fortress that seemed to reach for the sky. I glimpsed a few startled, tanned faces. His servants, no doubt.

Wrapping my arms around Halcyon's neck, I pressed into him, needing the contact, the security, unable to stop my body's tremors.

Ascending a flight of stairs, Halcyon brought me to a rich, comfortable chamber and lay me down on cool linen, disappearing for a moment. When he returned, he wore clean clothing. The blood that had covered him was gone. He held two wet washcloths in his hands. One he gently pressed against the torn flesh on my neck. With the other, he slowly and methodically cleaned my face, wiping off Amber's blood. He carefully washed my raw wrists and ankles, even my breasts, as efficiently as any nurse. When Halcyon was finished, he slid me into a clean silk shirt that smelled faintly of him.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"In my private chambers," Halcyon said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"He staked me out in front of your own house." I snorted. "He certainly had balls."

"No longer," Halcyon said coldly.

I shivered, remembering the unearthly baying of the Hell hounds.

"I am sorry you had to see that," Halcyon said quietly.

"No. I know you had to set an example. To let others see what they risked if they challenged you. And it's not as if I haven't cut parts off of men myself." My smile cracked and disappeared. "Just not quite to your thorough degree."

"I meant that I was sorry you had to see me in my other form." Halcyon kept his gaze averted. "You fear me now."

Monsters were we all, I thought, and so terribly fragile.

"It would be foolish not to fear demons," I replied softly.

"You did not fear me before."

"I was foolish. I did not know how incredibly strong and dangerous you were." I remembered Gryphon's trembling fear and anger when I had returned from the forest in Halcyon's company. Gryphon had known.

Halcyon's face was a carved golden mask, devoid of any living expression.

"But I trust you still not to harm me." I took Halcyon's unresisting hand, laid it against my face, and drew his long lethal nails gently down my skin.

Halcyon drew in a convulsive breath. His hand tightened against my face for a brief moment, an involuntary spasm, then relaxed.

Something changed. The room suddenly shimmered with sensuality. Halcyon's lips softened in a seductive smile, drawing my attention to them like an irresistible siren call. His lips were pure red carnality. His nails slid down the smooth uninjured side of my neck in a sensuous caress that seemed to touch more than just skin, going deeper, much deeper inside to secret places. Unbelievable pleasure slithered down my spine and loosened my knees.

I shuddered and drew carefully away from his touch. "I don't, however, trust you not to try and seduce me."

"And well you should not," Halcyon murmured, his voice a deep sensuous velvet that stroked all my senses. He bent over me, lowering those erotic red lips down.

"No," I said softly. The small hand I put up to his chest was no match against his greater strength, but he stopped.

"Why not?" he asked just as softly.

"I've given my heart already."

"To Gryphon."

"And Amber," I said in a low voice.

Halcyon's lips twisted. "Then why not me too?"

"I… just can't. I'd feel as if I were betraying them."

Halcyon lowered those tempting lips closer and whispered against my mouth, "I could make you not care."

I did not doubt that he had the ability to make true his words.

"Then you might as well tear my throat out," I whispered against the almost press of his lips. "It would hurt me less."

Halcyon stilled, looked deep within me, and read the truth of my words. He drew away and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry," I said, not knowing why I was apologizing but feeling as if I should.

He gave a harsh laugh. "So am I. So am I. It's my fault you are hurt. I should have hid my interest in you. My only excuse is that you took me so by surprise. I was not thinking."

"No," I said sharply. "You cannot hold yourself accountable tor Kadeen's actions." My voice softened. "Anyway you rescued me and killed the bad guy."

One elegant eyebrow quirked upward. "You don't think of me, a demon, as a bad guy? After you saw my other self?"

"No. You just make visible that dark part that every one of us has inside of them, especially me."

Halcyon reached out, his thumb rubbing small circles against my hand. "I love that part of you, hell-cat."

"Do you? I sense a beast within me, waiting to be let loose. It scares me sometimes." I smiled tremulously. "But it reassures me to see how in control you are of that part of yourself. You control it. It doesn't control you."

"No, it doesn't control me."

"What you change into is not so different from the forms the Monère shift into."

"Perhaps because we were once Monère."

My eyes widened upon hearing that fact. "All of you?"

"There are some Mixed Bloods among us but not many. Few have enough psychic power to make the transition to Hell."

"Why should that matter?"

Halcyon smiled. "Hell is not the place for sinners that humans believe it to be. After the Monère die, some fade back into the darkness. Those who have remaining psychic power come here and exist in this forever twilight realm for as long as their energy sustains them."

"Would I come here?"

"Yes, if your mind was not burned out when you died."

I searched his eyes. "Then why did it anger you so when you learned that the witch's brew almost killed me?"

Halcyon pressed a soft kiss to my hand, making me shiver, and not in fear. "I value life. Yours especially, hell-cat. It was your joyous laughter that first drew me to you, your pure delight in nature's beauty. You were bathed in sunlight and filled with happiness. You captivated me and you lured me in even deeper when you betrayed no fear of me. When you tried to protect me, made Amber sheath his sword, I fell in love with you."

His simple statement lay between us.

I lifted the hand he had kissed and tenderly traced the lean lines of Halcyon's elegant face. "You must find try and find someone else to love. For both our sakes."

"You love Gryphon and Amber only because you met them first. But you will love me last. I shall be here long after they have gone," Halcyon said with certainty.

I smiled wryly. "But will I?"

He nodded. "Your psychic power is greater than theirs."

When Halcyon had promised to wait, he had spoken not only of life but of the afterlife. I stared at him. "How old are you, Halcyon?"

"I have lived over six hundred years in this realm."

No wonder he had looked at me so curiously when I'd asked if he was over a hundred years old when we'd first met. What was this thing I had for older guys?

"One last question. Can I leave Hell?"

Halcyon's smile did not reach his dark chocolate eyes. "You mean will I let you leave."

"That too," I said softly.

"Your young man does not expect you to return," Halcyon said suddenly.

He meant Gryphon. I guess seventy-five years would seem young in Halcyon's eyes. "Why not?"

"No human or living Monère ever has. If the descent does not kill them, the arrival certainly does. Their bodies cannot survive in this heat. They become the demon dead or simply fade into the darkness."

So maybe it was not the sun itself but heat that killed the Monère. "But I'm still alive. My heart beats."

"Yes. You can survive here," Halcyon said, looking at me in a contemplative, unsettling manner. "And you were not brought here by my hand. Even the Council would not question me if you never returned."

His dangerous words made my blood run more quickly in my veins. "I am not a captured butterfly you can keep, Halcyon. Do not make me hate you."

"Could you not choose to be with me?" It was a quiet plea.

I gazed at the lonely elegant man before me. A man who said he loved me. A man who stirred feelings of friendship and more within me. Could I have chosen to remain here with him? Yes, if I had met him first. And to tell Halcyon that would have been the utmost cruelty, because the unalterable fact was I had not met him first.

"You must let me go. I fear my brother is in peril. I must find him. Please, Halcyon." I licked my lips nervously, drawing his gaze down to my mouth. His eyes dropped even further to the beating pulse of my neck.

"A kiss. Or one small taste of your blood," Halcyon said finally. "That is my price for letting you go."

Dizzying relief rushed through me even as my heart pounded faster in fear as I remembered the brutal way Kadeen's teeth had ripped into me.

"I will not hurt you," Halcyon promised gently.

My brief spurt of alarm receded. "A taste then," I said, reasoning that a sip of my blood would be much, much safer than kissing him. Turning my head, I offered my neck to the demon prince.

Halcyon bent down over me and sharp awareness of his body over mine singed me though no part of him touched me. I felt his breath against my skin, felt an involuntary tingling in my breasts as he inhaled and drew in my scent. A tingling that turned into an ache as I felt his teeth sharpen against my neck, an ache that began to throb as he scraped his fangs lightly along my skin in an erotic caress that made me suddenly doubt the wisdom of my choice. Sensual tendrils whispered over my body like invisible hands.

He pierced me, a glorious aching pain that made me cry out. Crooning with fierce pleasure, Halcyon drank my blood and I felt his vibration trill over my breasts, trip down to my core and arrow into me with sweet ferocity. I arched up against him as agonizing pleasure burst within me, drenching me until wetness trickled down my thighs and the scent of my satisfaction filled the room. Halcyon released me as my light was slowly absorbed back into my body. I looked up into his dark eyes, limp and dazed, my breath coming fast.

He licked a small drop of my blood from where it rested like an innocent red beauty mark upon his lips. "A small taste of me, as I tasted you."

"I do not believe I could survive more," I said, breathless.

"Would it not be glorious to sec if you could?" Halcyon whispered temptingly.

I laughed shakily, pushed him away from me, and sat up on the bed. "Take me back, Halcyon. Please. I need to find my brother."

We arrived back in the same alley where I had been taken. Halcyon walked out of the misty wall, carrying me in his arms. He had shielded me somehow so that all I felt was minor discomfort.

Gryphon was waiting, slumped against the wall. Grief and despair ravaged his face, twisting it into a harsh mask. He rose to his feet slowly and stiffly. Disbelief shadowed his luminous eyes for a moment then fled as fierce glittering emotions filled their place.

Halcyon set me down and I rushed into Gryphon's arms. He held me tightly, uncaring of his own wounds.

"Amber? Chami?" I asked.

"Back in your apartment, not far from here, resting."

They were both still alive. Thank God.

Gryphon set me carefully aside and dropped to his knees before Halcyon.

"My thanks, Prince Halcyon, for returning her back to us," Gryphon said, his voice hoarse with gratitude.

"Do not thank me. It was her choice. Not mine."

"My deepest gratitude, then, most especially because of that," Gryphon said, holding Halcyon's gaze.

The Demon Prince smiled wryly down at Gryphon. "Thought of that, too, did you, lad." Halcyon sighed and looked at me mockingly. "I would have been the better choice. But he's not too poor an alternative, considering. Until we next meet, milady." Halcyon bowed and walked back into the mist. The swirling white slowly faded and disappeared.

Gryphon stood up and ran his gaze over me in close examination, taking in the expensive silk shirt, the baggy pants cinched tight at the waist with a man's leather belt, the masculine necktie wrapped around my throat. "I thought we'd lost you," Gryphon whispered, loosening the cloth about my neck and gazing at the marks on either side. He retied the cloth without comment.

"Nope. I'm hard to kill."

"That was the only hope I clung to, when I dared hope."

"How badly are Amber and Charm hurt?" I closed my eyes. "Stupid question. I saw how badly. But they'll live, right?"

Gryphon nodded and gave a fierce smile. "We are hard to kill as well."

"I'm glad. Terribly, terribly glad. Let me see your wounds."

Gryphon lifted his shirt. The deep furrows, already beginning to heal, arrowed angrily from his left hip to just below his right ribs. The stiletto wound was finally gone, I saw, only to replaced by this new injury. My palms tingled as I ran both of my hands over the deep gashes, easing his discomfort.

"Ah, that feels much better." Gryphon took my hands in his and kissed them. "The wounds will heal quickly enough on their own. I was most fortunate. It was but a glancing blow."

I'd seen up-close and personal what those claws could do and could not disagree with him.

"Let us go quickly to your place," Gryphon said, tucking me against his side as we left the alley. "Amber needs you."

I was grateful for Gryphon's lack of jealousy. Truly I was. But at the same time it bothered me. "You and Amber. You're amazingly generous with each other about me."

A hard gleam came into Gryphon's eyes. "I do not share you lightly, Mona Lisa. Only with Amber. He is my equal and shares with you his strength and helps shield you from our enemies. We belong to you." Gryphon touched the necktie, his fingers unerringly finding the spot where Halcyon had bit me. "Halcyon does not belong to you. He is not one of us. And being with him does not strengthen but endangers you."

"I asked him to find someone else to love."

"That would be most ideal," Gryphon said dryly, "and make you less of a target. Will he do so, do you think?"

I shrugged unthinkingly, jarring my wounds, above and below. "I don't know. Will there be other demons?"

"The fate of the demon who took you will surely serve as a deterrent but… few demons are powerful enough to leave Hell."

I shuddered. "Great. So that means that the ones that do come after us are going to be really strong."

The first thing I saw when I entered my apartment was Chami lying on the couch. He was ghastly white, his face paler even than the white pillow he rested upon. Upon seeing me, he tried to rise.

"Don't be foolish and try to get up," I said, pushing him back down.

"Any more foolish than attacking a demon?" Chami returned.

"That was foolish indeed. Did you know what they could do?"

Chami gave a short nod. "Still had to try. Haven't figured out a way to kill those bastards yet."

"Cut off their heads." I shivered as I remembered those awful eyes, aware and knowing in Kadeen's severed head. The memory was going to haunt my dreams for a long time to come.

"I'll try that instead of going for the heart next time. Should have told me sooner," Chami grumbled.

"I didn't know sooner."

"Is that what happened to the big guy who grabbed you?"

"Yeah."

Grim satisfaction colored Chami's blue eyes. "Good. One demon down. I wonder how many more to go?"

"Hopefully no more. What happened to Kadeen should serve as sufficient warning to the others."

He must have seen something in my eyes. "More to it than just cutting off the head, huh?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I said quietly.

Chami was instantly contrite.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Drained," Chami said, straight-faced.

"Yuck! That's a terrible joke." I slapped him on the shoulder.

Chami shrugged and grinned wickedly. "It happens to be true. But I'm much better already. We are a hardy lot."

I smiled, very thankful for that fact. "You talk like a human, more than the others," I said and grimaced as I heard myself. I was beginning to speak like them.

"Comes from watching too much television."

Chami's easy grin flitted away, leaving a quiet, wary seriousness in its place as I put my hand gently over the mangled, puffy flesh of his neck. It made me wonder: Was the assassin like me, touched so rarely by others, with care, with gentleness?

His wound had already begun to knit together. A scab had formed and the bruises were green-yellow. Two weeks of healing in several hours. Amazing.

"Your ouchie looks just like mine," I murmured.

My palm tingled over Chami's neck, easing his pain, and his eyes widened.

"Your ouchie. Is that what I smell? It feels much better now," Chami observed with wonder as I lifted my hand away.

"Good. Rest now."

"Yes, my Queen." He said it lightly, but the lightness did not touch his serious eyes. He meant those words. I was truly his Queen.

"Where's Amber?" I asked.

"In your bedroom. It was the only bed in this place. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not."

I entered my bedroom and closed the door behind me. Golden amber eyes gleamed at me from the bed where Amber lay with the sheet drawn up to the waist, leaving his chest bare.

Amber had been split open, leaving that strong, fragile heart so vulnerable—another image that would frequent my nightmares. But that miraculous healing ability we possessed had already knitted back enough viscera so that his heart no longer was exposed. However, the repair had not reached the bones quite yet. The white jagged edges lay cracked, exposed, the separate pieces of his broken ribs moving disjointedly with each slow breath that lifted his chest.

"Oh, Amber," I breathed, tears welling up. I could not even begin to imagine the pain he must be in.

"Can't lift my arms without moving my ribs," Amber whispered, his deep voice strained. "Touch me, please."

I knelt beside him, cupped that dear harsh face in my hands and brushed the hair tenderly back from his damp forehead.

"You're real," Amber breathed at my touch and closed his eyes. I kissed the warm tears from his lashes. "I apologize for failing you," he said.

I jerked back. "Don't be ridiculous."

"You were under my protection."

"He was a demon," I said, my voice edging with temper. "It was crazy of you to even try to fight him."

"It was my duty to keep you safe. I failed you," Amber insisted.

Hot tears splashed down my face. I angrily swiped them away. "Stubborn fool. Then I failed you, too. You belong to me," I proclaimed arrogantly. "It's my duty to keep you safe."

"Shhh. Don't cry."

"Then don't make me angry by saying stupid things. We're alive! We're still alive. That's all that matters."

A smile twisted Amber's lips. "Yes, milady."

"Milady," I chided at his distancing formal address, a smile wobbling on my lips. "Now you're trying to really make me mad. Oh, Amber." I brushed my lips against him, felt the stern lines of his mouth soften and move against mine. We'd never really kissed before, I realized. Just chaste pecks. I coaxed his mouth to open, delved within, tasted his sweetness for the very first time, and let the sexual heat between us slowly build.

"No," Amber said, turning his head away.

Ignoring him, I pulled the sheet down from his lap, crooning with approval at what had risen to greet me. I stroked his erection once with a tight possessive stroke.

"Why not?" I asked softly. "Am I hurting you?"

"You are slaying me," he gritted, his amber eyes mere molten slits. "It is not my wish for you to come to me like this, when I am injured, to heal me. I made a promise to myself that the next occasion you came to me would be because you desired me."

Yes, monsters all of us, I thought. And so horribly fragile.

"Next time," I said tenderly.

"Shall there be a next time?"

"Yes," I whispered, and awareness of what I just promised was reflected in both of our eyes—it was a promise that I would try what they had suggested, being with them both.

My lashes swept down beneath his heated gaze. It was easier to kiss Amber's bunched abdomen, run a string of kisses down the crisp hair that arrowed down the center of his belly. Rub my soft cheek against his rigid staff and relish the texture of the buttery velvet skin that covered hard stone within. I felt him shudder.

One quick jerk to loosen the belt and my borrowed pants pooled around my feet.

Amber stopped me as I moved back toward him. "Your shirt," he demanded.

Hesitating briefly, I unbuttoned my shirt and let it fall away. I felt his gaze touch upon the marks on my left breast, touch upon my wrists and ankles.

"Remove the necktie," Amber commanded softly.

I loosened the cloth, my eyes downcast. His angry hiss of breath made me flinch even though I knew it wasn't directed at me. Having Amber see Kadeen's brutal marks upon me made me feel vulnerable, unclean, a victim's guilt. Stupid though I knew the feeling to be, I could not shake it. I felt Amber struggle to contain his anger and stood there in naked uncertainty.

"Did Halcyon send the demon to his final death?" Amber asked roughly.

"Yes."

Amber absorbed that for a long moment, let it calm him, and gentled his gravelly voice as much as he could. "Do you still want me?"

I nodded.

"Then take me. I am yours."

I knew as he spoke that he remembered how I had healed myself as well as him the last time. Crawling hesitantly onto the bed and between his thighs, I lay a hand upon a muscled leg, and bent down to take him into my mouth.

"Can you take me within you?" he asked, stopping me.

"Yes," I answered in a small voice.

"Do you wish to?"

"Oh, yes," I breathed.

My answer made Amber smile.

"Will it hurt you?" I asked.

"It will hurt me more if you do not."

My answering smile caressed him as I carefully straddled him. His sex was huge and hard. I loved the feel of him in my hand: big, warm, and pulsing. I squeezed him tightly and his eyes fluttered shut. I dipped down onto him, letting him enter me slightly before lifting back up after wetting the tip of him. His thick neck grew taut.

"Next time I shall be on top," Amber muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes narrow gold slits.

I laughed. "I don't know about that. We might have to wrestle for it. I'm beginning to like this position."

Amber's growl turned into a groan as I lowered back down. Leaning back, I rubbed his wonderful thick rod against my wet outer lips, moving up and down gently against him. I spread the moisture around the rest of him and slowly pushed down onto his stiff member. There was just enough lubrication to allow him to enter me, increment by increment. Just enough so that I could feel every single sensation as he stretched me, feel every delicious rub of his ridged tip as it bumped and pushed its way with excruciating, killing slowness into my tight greedy flesh. I swallowed him up, inch by glorious inch, and he filled me so blissfully full so that only then did I realize how empty I had been.

I sighed with the satisfaction of a difficult job well done when he was finally buried full within me.

"Come here," Amber rumbled.

I braced my arms, bent down over him, and felt his hardened staff resist then bend within me as I angled my body over him.

"Closer," he said.

I lowered myself down until my lips were a breath away from his jaw. Amber turned his head and licked Halcyon's neat puncture marks, laving away the Demon Prince's scent and replacing it with his own. My inner muscles clenched around Amber in involuntary response at his tongue's rough caress. He twitched within me, stretching my posterior vaginal wall and I gasped and bit back a moan. I felt his teeth clamp upon my neck. Felt Amber bite down hard enough for it to hurt, but not enough to break skin. Felt him suck hard, laving the spot with the rough texture of his tongue, leaving his own mark there over Halcyon's. My body pulsed and spasmed, screaming within, glowing, even as my scream of pleasure strangled in my throat as I desperately tried to be quiet.

I felt Amber's mouth move in a demonic smile against my neck as he tortured me as thoroughly as I had tortured him, without even lifting his arms.

The power built and our incandescence lit the room. So close. So close to the edge now. Supporting my weight completely on my left hand, I wrapped my other hand around his bulging bicep, needing something to grip on to.

Amber moved to the other side of my neck, licked gently along the swollen, tender flesh and made me whimper as he breathed over the open wound. Made me gasp and quiver as he touched his tongue just there and then push slowly, oh so slowly, down into my raw flesh. Not moving. Just there. Exquisite pain. Exquisite pleasure.

One gentle push deeper with his tongue, filling me, stretching wounded flesh and I convulsed, exploded within, my inner muscles clenching and contracting about him, gripping his huge, thick sex. My body tried its inner best to milk him dry as I held still, frozen above him in immobility, unable to move for fear of hurting him.

Amber groaned as if I were killing him as he climaxed without even a single stroke. His stillness within me allowed me to feel and absorb every spurt and shuddering jet of his pleasure.

I lifted my head. Looking at the astonishing wholeness of Amber's flesh put a whole new meaning to good sex. His ribs had knit back together. His muscles and sinews were untorn. His skin was once again velvety smoothness. A bloody miracle.

"I must apologize," he said suddenly, stiltedly. "I was too forward."

"I don't mind, Amber," I said, pushing back my hair. "I like it that you were a little bossy. It means that you feel comfortable enough with me to be yourself. Is that what you're really like?" I asked teasingly. "Arrogant and domineering?"

"I do not know."

The utter sincerity of his words punched me like a fist, destroying me. My lashes swept down to shield my emotions from him. Dear sweet Jesus. Over a hundred and five years of life and he did not know what he was really like.

"Thank you for healing me," Amber said, gifting me with another of his rare sweet smiles. "Now we can go find your brother."