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

looked like a man just a heartbeat from death. But he had not a single wound or injury that I could see.
    His wounds were all internal.
    “Oh good Him, Dialle. What have I done to you?”
    He just stared at me, the black gaze dancing icy fingers down my spine. His once-beautiful hair hung limp and dull around his face and the clothes he wore draped loosely, like cast-off clothes on a farmer’s scarecrow.
    How far he’d fallen in the few days since I’d left.
    I took a step closer and the Hell hounds snapped, sending spittle in a wide arc around their massive heads. I jerked to a halt. “Call them off, Dialle.”
    His cold gaze slid slowly toward the hounds and then back to me. “Go away, Astra. Leave me alone.”
    “I’m not going anywhere without you. Come with me, Dialle. Let’s get away from this place and I can make it better. I promise.”
    His black eyes suddenly spiraled with icy, hostile silver. “You’ll make it better? How? I nurture a cold, dead mating mark in my breast. No light infuses the mark. Only the oily black of Hell. My court rots around me, like my cursed soul. The very air I breathe is like poison. I no longer belong here. There is no making it better, Astra. Unless you’ve come to tell me you’ve regained your power.”
    I opened my mouth to tell him exactly that, despite the fact it wasn’t strictly true. In that moment, I realized I’d do anything to save him. But the doors behind me slammed back against the wall and, startled into action, the hounds attacked.
    I’d started to turn to see who was coming at me from behind when the first massive hound hit me, throwing me to the ground and sending me skidding across the floor. I rammed up against something that felt like rock and looked up to see Gerch peering down at me. Acidic dog spit dripped onto my cheek. Standing on my chest snarling, the hound’s sulfurous breath painted my face. My hands pressed against its chest, holding the snapping teeth away from my throat.
    Just barely.
    Gerch stared at me for a moment, his craggy face dark with anger.
    “A little help here?” I gasped as those impossibly white teeth made headway toward my cringing flesh.
    He reached down and grabbed the hellhound by the scruff of the neck, flinging it away. The thing landed with a yelp and the two hounds skulked away, tails tucked.
    “How strange to see you here, my queen, since I told you to leave.”
    I climbed to my feet and brushed rock dust off my ass. “And I told you I wasn’t leaving without Dialle.”
    Gerch frowned, his small, black eyes nearly disappearing beneath a wide, red brow. “Well, since you’re here we might as well escort the king from this place together.”
    I nodded and we turned. Horror knifed through me and I had to reach out and grab Gerch’s arm as dizziness made the world spin.
    “Where is he, Astra?” Gerch spoke the question in a soft voice, his eyes sliding to mine.
    “I...” The throne was empty. As was the throne room. Oh Good Him. Dialle had left without us.
    ~SC~
    With the last of my quickly faltering power, I shifted Gerch to the office. The subterranean workplace was empty when we got there. Apparently Bob and Ralph were out on a job. We spent the next hour contacting everyone we could trust, asking them to come to my office for a confab on what to do next. Then Gerch and I settled into my office to wait for my friends and family to arrive. While waiting, I tried to fill Gerch in on what had happened before he arrived in the throne room. “I’m afraid Dialle’s going to hurt himself. You should have heard him.”
    “What makes you think I haven’t?” He fixed me with an accusing look that made me bristle. But knowing the loyal Captain of Dialle’s guards had done his best in a terrible situation, and he’d remained loyal when everyone else had turned against us, I bit back my angry retort and said nothing.
    Again with the maturity. Impressive, yes?
    The air in front of my desk shimmered and Brina