AERON CROUCHED in his underground prison, fury flowing through his veins. Fury with himself, the gods, his demon. Reyes. He should have killed me. Too late now. I want to live. I want to taste the death of those women.
Darkness would have enveloped him completely, but he'd long since given over to his demon. His eyes glowed bright red, throwing crimson beams wherever he looked. Mud and rock surrounded him. He was buried so deep in the earth he could hear the screams of the damned, could smell the sulfur and rotting flesh wafting from hell's gates. He'd thought Lucien was the only warrior with access to the hereafter, but apparently Reyes had it, as well.
Wrath, his demonic companion, foamed at the mouth and chomped at the edges of Aeron's mind, desperate to escape this hated place. To act.
Too close to home, the demon shouted. Won't go back.
"The Darkest Pleasure"
"No, you won't go back."
Aeron couldn't survive without his demon; they were now one being, two halves of a whole, incomplete without the other. No longer was Aeron ready to die. Craving his own demise had been a momentary burst of madness, surely. Now he knew, now he accepted. He couldn't allow himself to be killed until the blood of those four women stained his hands, coated his arms and filled his mouth.
Mallory, Tinka, Ginger and Danika.
He smiled, practically tasting their deaths already. Cut their throats, Cronus, the king of gods, had commanded him. Do not leave their sides until their hearts stop and their lungs still. Aeron thought he might have resisted at first - innocent, they were innocent - but he could not be certain. Allowing those women to live seemed...abhorrent.
"Soon," he promised himself. He trembled with anticipation.
He'd killed recently. He knew it, deep in his bones, but his memory was hazy. All his mind would provide was the image of an old woman splayed on the cold ground, blood crusted on her temples. There were tears in her eyes and cuts on her right arm.
"Don't hurt me," she begged. "Please, don't hurt me."
In one hand, Aeron clutched a dagger. His other hand was pure claw, sharp and lethal. He lunged forward -
And then, as always, the vision faded completely. What had happened after that? What had he done? He wasn't sure. His only certainty was that he would not have backed away from the kill. He would not have left her alive.
Want out. Want up! Want to stretch wings and fly.
"I know." Aeron jerked at his chains. They rattled and cut his already scabbed wrists, but they didn't budge. He bared his teeth in a scowl. F*cking Reyes.
F*cking Pain.
Aeron could not recall how Reyes had defeated him and carted him here, only that he had. A tortured "Forgive me" still rang in Aeron's ears.
They were the same words Aeron used to mutter as he stood on the outskirts of Budapest, watching the humans, amazed that they blithely went about their days unconcerned about their inherent weaknesses and the knowledge that they would soon die. Some by his hand.
Aeron had sometimes erupted into blood-rages, Wrath judging and executing those who deserved his particular brand of punishment. Rapists, molesters. Murderers. Like me. Some, though, did not deserve what he did to them. Like the women.
He frowned. The thought was out of place in the chaos of his mind, a notion he would have considered before the gods tasked him with the beautiful death of the Ford women.
Suddenly rocks crumbled, falling from the far cavern wall and disrupting his brooding. Aeron's attention whipped to it, eyelids slitting. There was a narrow hole in the center, a pair of glowing red eyes - demon eyes like Aeron's - pulsing through it.
Aeron growled a warning. He was chained and weaponless, but he was not helpless. He had teeth. He would eat his foe, if necessary.
More rocks fell, widening the hole. Then a bald, scaled head pushed through. Those bright red eyes looked right and left before landing on Aeron. Sharp, glistening fangs appeared in a feral smile.
"I sssmelled you, brother." The creature spoke with a lisp, forked tongue flickering. It sounded happy rather than menacing.
"I am not your brother."
Thin lips slithered into a pout. "But you Wrath."
Aeron's claws elongated to razor points. "Yes, I am." You know him? he asked his demon.
No.
There was a third tumble of rocks as scaled shoulders emerged, followed by a short scaly body.
"Come any closer and you will die."
"No, I won't. Me never die." The creature planted hoofed feet on the ground and stood. It was so short it couldn't have reached any higher than Aeron's navel. A tremble passed through its small body, scattering dust from its dull green scales.
"How can you be so sure?"
"We friendsss."
"I have no friends. Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Massster used to call me Legion before he called me Ssstupid Idiot." It moved one step closer, humming with giddiness. Grinning, fangs making another appearance. "Want to play?"
Legion. Interesting. "One of a thousand what?"
"Minionsss." Another step.
Servants of hell, Wrath supplied with disgust. Useless, disposable, unworthy. Eat him.
Aeron drew his knees up to his chest, preparing to attack. "Stop." Now why had he said that? He wanted the thing to approach. Wanted to feast on it.
It obeyed, the pout returning to its lips. "But we friendsss now. Friendsss get to sssometimesss ssstand next to each other. I ssseen them do it."
He didn't bother reiterating that they weren't friends. "Why are you here, Legion?" Questions first, dinner second.
Anticipation brightened those crimson eyes. "Me want to play. Will you play with me? Pleassse, pleassse, pleassse."
"Play what?" Saliva dipped from the corner of Aeron's mouth, and he licked at it. The more he considered the option of eating his foe, the more he liked the thought of having the demon for a snack. Aeron had enough slack in his chains that he'd been able to catch and sustain himself on rats. The demon would make a tasty change. Mustard would have been nice, though. F*cking Reyes. "What game?"
"The Darkest Pleasure"
"Catch the demon! Massster stopped playing with me. Kick me out of home." It looked down and punted a pebble with its hoof. "Me did a bad, bad thing and don't get to play with him no more."
"What bad thing?" He asked the question before he could stop himself.
Those fangs emerged, chewing away at that thin bottom lip. "Ate Massster'sss hand. Want to play?"
And perhaps lose one of his hands? He thought about it, shrugged. "We can play." Turnabout was only fair.
"Goody!" Claws clapped together in excitement, though the fiend remained a good distance away. "Can we change rule?"
There were rules? "What rule is that?"
"Winner never can beat me with ssstonesss."
"Agreed." Aeron would just bite him with teeth.
Laughing eerily, Legion leapt into the air. He bounded from one side of the cave to the other, a mere blur to Aeron's eyes. Twice he whizzed past, cackling happily, and twice Aeron reached out, the metal bonds cutting deeper. The creature arched just out of reach.
Aeron stilled and pondered his options. He had limited range of motion, and Legion moved too quickly to see. He'd have to wait, a spider weaving a web, using his other senses.
Determined, he closed his eyes, welcoming total darkness. He placed his hands on his upraised knees, hoping he was the picture of tranquility.
Legion's gleeful laughter echoed in his ears, closer...closer...Fingertips scraped his forehead, but Aeron didn't even twitch.
"Catch me, catch me, if you can."
Stones fell from the far wall a split second before the laughter increased in volume and a breeze ruffled the humid, ash-soaked air. Any moment...wait...wait for it...Something hot brushed his arm, and Aeron snapped his fingers closed.
A gasp, a squeal. Legion wiggled against his grip, laughter ceasing.
"I win." Aeron's teeth sharpened and he threw his head forward. Contact. Acid blood filled his mouth, burning, blistering.
"Ow!"
Coughing and spitting, Aeron released the demon. His eyelids popped open but soon narrowed to slits. Why didn't you tell me he was poison? he barked at Wrath.
Didn't know, was the pouting reply.
"You bit me." There was accusation in the creature's tone. Accusation and hurt. Tears filled those red eyes.
"You taste like bile, you disgusting maggot."
"But...but...you made me bleed." Legion rubbed at his neck, black blood seeping from between his scaled fingers. "You promisssed not to."
"I promised not to beat you." Something almost like...remorse? Yes, remorse sparked to life in Aeron's chest, overshadowing his constant anger and overwhelming death-lust. "I - " What? Nearly gnawed you to bits but I'm sorry now? "I thought that's how the game was played."
"You thought wrong." Legion sniffed and turned away. He - no longer an "it" in his mind, Aeron realized - stalked to the corner and buried his face in the rock, sulking.
Dear gods. How did I stumble into this situation?
Minions are such babies, Wrath growled, as if it wasn't a baby.
"I didn't know the rules," Aeron said, shocked that he felt more like himself in that moment than he had in months and unsure of why.
Legion peeked over his shoulder, scales glistening like polished rubies in the red glow of Aeron's demonic irises. His scales had been green before, hadn't they? "If we going to be friendsss, you have to promissse not to bite anymore. My feelingsss got hurt, too."
Friends? "Legion, I do not wish to hurt your feelings, but - "
"Sssee!" Grinning again, the tiny demon spun and clapped his clawed hands. "You not wisssh to hurt me anymore. We friendsss already. What ssshould we do, what ssshould we do? Want to play another game?"
Aeron's head tilted to the side, and he eyed his new...friend thoughtfully. "I know another game we can play."
"Oh, what? What?" The clapping became happily frantic. "Me want to play. What'sss it called? Me win thisss time, I jussst know it!"
"It's called break-the-chains."
PARIS LAY SPRAWLED beside the human woman on the rented bed. He'd been inside this room countless times before. A king-size mattress, white walls with classic paintings hanging strategically. A black desk, golden lamp. Number fourteen of the Boutique Hotel Zara. Only he'd been with a different woman each time.
He didn't know his companion's name, he mused, and he didn't care to know. She was a tourist, and he'd never see her again.
He never saw his bedmates again.
Usually he left immediately after the sex was finished. Lingering promoted feelings, and since he couldn't screw the same woman twice, feelings were nothing but a nuisance.
Tonight, however, he'd stayed. Now the woman was snoring softly at his side. His mind was restless, his body tense, but he didn't want to go home. Maddox had Ashlyn, Lucien had Anya and now Reyes had Danika. Seeing them together reminded Paris of the woman he wanted - the woman he had killed.
Sienna.
Adorably plain Sienna with her freckled skin, thick glasses and dark curly hair. Thin, too thin, with barely any curves, barely any breasts. Yet she'd snared him from the first. He'd desired her, romanced her as best as he was able and seduced her. And she'd quickly betrayed him. Had planned to betray him from the beginning.
"The Darkest Pleasure"
She'd been a Hunter, his worst enemy, and she'd used his arousal against him, distracting him and drugging him, then leaving him for her coworkers to find. They had locked him up, chained him. Studied him. He'd almost died and they'd had to throw Sienna into the lion's den, so to speak, to keep him alive.
Promiscuity couldn't survive without sex. The longer Paris went without it, the weaker he became. Those Hunters hadn't wanted him dead. How, then, could they have studied his abilities? How, then, could they have used him to lure his friends into Hunter territory? More than that, to kill him was to unleash his demon onto the world, crazed and blood-hungry, insane without its host.
Hunters didn't want that. Oh, they wanted the demons sucked out, but not until they found Pandora's box. As yet, no one was close to finding it. Not even the Lords.
So they'd sent Sienna into his cell. She had ridden him hard, just right, just the way he liked, and he'd regained his strength - more than usual, in fact. For the first time since his bonding with Promiscuity, he'd gotten hard for the same woman twice.
Paris had decided to keep her. Punish her, yes, but keep her for the rest of her life all the same. Because for the briefest of moments, he'd thought he'd found a woman who could save him. He'd no longer cared that she was a Hunter and that she thought the world would be a better place without him and his friends in it. He'd only cared about finally, blessedly having the same woman over and over again. Savoring her, learning her. Maybe even loving her.
He'd foolishly assumed they were meant to be together, that the gods had at last decided to relieve his inner torment. He was tired of searching for a new woman every day, tired of making love without really loving, not remembering who he kissed and touched, never really discovering what they liked or didn't like because there were so many faces, bodies, preferences and requests swimming in his memories.
So he'd escaped that Hunter prison with Sienna at his side. Like an untrained soldier, he'd allowed her to be shot. Not once, not twice, but three times.
She'd died in his arms.
Should have protected her. Weeks had since passed, but Paris couldn't scrub her face from his mind. Could no longer get hard unless he thought of her.
She wanted me. She hadn't wanted to want him, but want him she had. She'd been dripping wet as she slid down his swollen shaft. Despite everything, ecstasy had glazed her eyes. Over and over she had moaned his name. His name. Not another man's.
Despite their differences, they could have been happy together.
"But no. I allowed her own people to snuff her out." He laughed bitterly. "Some warrior I am. My fault, all my fault."
"What's that?" his companion asked, her voice sleep-rich. She rolled toward him, hand flattening on his chest.
Shit. He hadn't meant to wake her. Didn't want to talk with her.
Paris threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood, dislodging her.
"Hmm," she said. "I like the view."
Motions clipped, he gathered his clothing from the floor. There were blades strapped on his arms and legs, and he didn't bother trying to hide them. They had turned the woman on.
She purred his name.
He ignored her and dressed.
"Come back to bed," she beseeched. "I want you again. I need you."
Similar words had been said to him a thousand times, would probably be said a thousand more by a thousand others. The thought made him cringe. "I need to go."
She huffed in disappointment. "Please stay. I need to start my day right, and having you inside me is oh, so right."
At the moment, he couldn't even remember what she looked like - and he'd been looking at her just seconds before. She wasn't Sienna, that much he knew. His cock was as limp as a wilted flower and would stay that way.
"Perhaps another time." It was a lie, but it was the kindest thing he could say.
The covers shifted. A little moan escaped her. She was probably fondling herself, seeking to tempt him or maybe find release. Either way, he didn't care. His body gave no reaction. This is what my life will always be reduced to: f*cking and leaving. I'm pathetic.
He adored women. They were his life's blood and he'd always taken care to soothe their emotions, plump their self-esteem. More and more, he just didn't have the energy for it.
"Paris," she whispered, breathless. "Replace my fingers with yours. Please."
"Sounds as if you're doing a good job. The room's paid up for the rest of the night. I'll leave you to it."
"Leave?" She jolted up, reached for him and dragged a fingertip down his side. "Stay. I'm begging you."
"Forget me. I've already forgotten you." He strode out of the room, out of the hotel, and never looked back.