bedeviled & beyond 06 - bedeviled & befouled by sam cheever Read Free Book Online

again, toward The Last Supper, seemingly forgetting me and everybody else.
    “Wait, what’s the next step? I don’t have a lot of time.”
    Gus turned without stopping. “The next step is meatloaf and lime Jell-O. Hurry up. I see a line forming.”
    Myra, Flick and Merriam hurried after him.
    Oh good Him. I’m surrounded by idiots. Despite my anxiousness and worry, though, I couldn’t stop the smile that tipped the corners of my lips upward. I just might be able to get my magic back.
    And that meant I could keep Dialle.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Old Friends, New Challenges
    The Devil you need must first survive, as blackness fills his soul.
    For the Devil you need can’t cling to life, when death asserts control.
    Hot lips scoured down my throat. Hard hands found my breasts, enveloping them in a near painful grip. I skimmed my hands over a well-toned back and opened my thighs wider, delighting in the stretching fullness of the rigid flesh thrusting between them.
    A low growl throbbed on the air, bringing gooseflesh up all along my arms and twisting the knot of fear in my breast. Sharp teeth scraped the sensitive skin of my neck, a fiery invasion that rode the edge of pleasure, despite the pain.
    I cried out, trying to pry my eyes open, and discovered I couldn’t. I was locked into the dream, with only a twisted kind of lust to keep me from completely succumbing to the fear.
    What was I rutting with? And why did it feel so good? The smell of sulfur assailed me. The distant cry of dragons screaming joined with the crackle of fire to create the overwhelming sensation that I was in Hell.
    Why would I dream of being in Hell?
    My hands shoved at my phantom lover—the fear and pain finally sending my mind into full-blown panic. He snarled, the hard hands clutching me more tightly against him, and the pain on my neck exploded into agony. I screamed, my hands flailing wildly against the warm satin of the torso pinning me down.
    Despite the horror blooming in my mind, my traitorous flesh took the agony and transformed it into pleasure. My screams of pain soon turned to screams of delight as blood ran in twin ribbons down my throat, pooling in the crevice between my breasts. I pictured the bright streams of red turning dark as the volume of blood grew. As my body writhed and convulsed in the ultimate pleasure, my mind started to twist, shutting down to save itself. Sensation softened and was muted behind a looming oblivion. A soft charcoal blanket of nothingness folded over my senses, threatening to take me under.
    “Hello, Astra.”
    I blinked, looking around. I was standing in a strange place, surrounded by the smell of lemons. My mother stood several feet away, a mean little smile on her beautiful face. “Hello, Mother. What are you doing in my dream?”
    Danika Phelps looked just as I remembered her from my childhood. She was dressed in a long, flowing dress with tall, leather boots. Her silky, black hair was loose, flowing over slim shoulders and ending in a thick, straight fringe just above her breasts. I felt the tug of childhood memories, mostly bad, as I looked at her standing there. Her velvet black gaze flashed with emotion. “I’ve come to tell you that we are going to destroy your delicious Dialle. It is unfortunate, but his father deserves his throne back, and I’m committed to helping him.
    I shook my head, numbed under the haze of my dreamlike state. “You can’t, you’re in Hell.”
    She smiled and turned away. “This is your only warning, daughter. Walk away from him now. Or you will go down with him.”
    Panic played a dull beat in my breast as her words sank in. Dialle is in danger? I shook my head, denying my mother’s words. But even as I did, horror found a place in my breast, and sent me spiraling into velvet unconsciousness.
    ~SC~
    The next day, I sat in my usual place in Gus’ office, hunkered over a steaming mug of coffee. My eyes felt gritty and my body weary, despite the fact that I’d spent ten