She whirled as the demon spoke, almost fell over, found him really close, and steadied herself on his chest. Behind her, Carl growled. And then they were arguing again.
She returned to the minibar, got a bottle of rum—if she persevered she was bound to find a drink she liked.
As the door opened and her lord Asmodai appeared, she let out another giggle. He stepped into the room, Faith close behind him. Shera managed a smile and a waggle of her fingers. Unfortunately, it was the hand holding the rum—her other hand was still clutching the sheet to her otherwise naked form—and it spilt across her fingers. “Whoops.”
Ash halted just inside the room, hands on his hips. “What the hell is going on here?” he roared.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, but no one spoke. It was obviously up to her to fill the silence.
“I’m a princess,” she said. “You may call me your Royal Highness.”
Asmodai shook his head. Then his gaze dropped to the bottle in her hand, and his eyes widened.
“Hey, don’t panic. I’m fine, and I’m coming back. I decided just now, right this minute, that I don’t want to die. I can’t promise I’ll be a good little slave anymore though. I don’t feel like being a good little anything.”
“Well, it’s good that we have an alternative.”
Carl moved closer, and she frowned. “No. I don’t want Carl to be your slave either.”
“Neither do I,” Asmodai replied. “Werewolves make shit poor slaves.”
“What the hell…?” Carl stepped forward all bristly male, ready to protect her.
She sighed dramatically. “My hero.”
He turned to face her. “You’re drunk.” He frowned as he scrutinized her. “But you’re not crazy.”
“Nope.”
“Well,” Asmodai said, “on the assumption that this condition might not last, let’s get this done and get the hell out of here.”
“Get what done?”
Faith stepped forward. “We talked about it,” she said. “It hadn’t occurred to us, but it’s so obvious really.”
“It is?”
“I can take the sigil.”
“You can?”
“I plan to stay with Ash for eternity anyway.”
“Well, there’s no accounting for taste,” Shera muttered and took a delicate sip of rum.
Carl snickered.
Faith reached out rested her hand on Shera’s arm, over the sigil. Asmodai stepped closer, placed his hand over Faith’s, murmured a few words, and just like that it was done.
As though a band had been loosened from around her, she was free. She glanced down. The sigil was gone.
She turned to Carl. “I love—”
But in that moment, a fire awoke in her belly. The flames raced along her nerves, roaring through her mind. She wanted to run, to leap, to tear something into tiny little bloody pieces with her teeth.
“Oh, hell. She’s gone demon crazy.”
Epilogue
“Then you went totally ape-shit demon-crazy, and we all jumped on top of you.”
Shera rubbed at her forehead. She couldn’t remember anything after those last words. She’d woken up here, in a lovely comfortable bed, with Carl propped in a chair beside her.
He continued with the story, “Then I punched that bastard Bevan on his ugly great nose, because I saw him copping a feel—you’d dropped the sheet by that point and were bare-assed naked. And that ass is only for me to see.”
“Okay, enough. I don’t want to know any more.”
“There isn’t much more to know. You passed out. I bundled you back up in your sheet, Ash opened a portal, and here we are. Thank God. Now, I really have to kiss you.”
About time.
He leaned across and took her lips in a gentle kiss. His mouth hardened against hers, his tongue filling her mouth as his body came down on the bed beside her. Fires ignited in her belly, her nipples tightening, and she rubbed herself against him as the kiss went on and on. In the end, they ran out of air, and he dragged his mouth from hers, breathing fast. He cupped her face with one hand.
“You changed your mind,” he whispered.
“I realized I wanted to live. I wanted the chance of a life with you.” She tugged a hand free, stroking his prickly jaw. “I love you. I could cope with anything with you beside me.”
“Me, too. That’s why I told Ash I’d take the sigil. I couldn’t face a world without you.”
Warmth radiated through her. He’d been willing to give up everything for her. “I nearly left it too late.”
“But it wasn’t.” He kissed her again, for a very long time.
Finally he raised his head, and she glanced around her. She didn’t recognize the room, and she knew every corner of Asmodai’s castle. “Where are we?”
“Your father’s house.”
“Oh God, I have a father. I’d forgotten. How could I forget that? Who is he? What’s he like? How—”
He put his finger to her lips. “Hush,” he said. “Probably best I don’t tell you anything about him. I don’t want to give you any preconceived ideas. Meet him and make up your own mind.”
“I’ve got nothing to wear.”
“There are wardrobes full of clothes.”
“Really? For me?”
“All for you.”
“So he wants me?”