But mostly, right now… he was just hers.
She slid her sticky hands back up to her breasts and cupped them again. Then, she bent down and gave his shaft one final lick. Looking into his eyes while she dragged her tongue up his length, she finished with a flick at the tip and said, “Mine.”
16
In The Pit Of Despair
Mist dangled by the manacles at his wrists, his arms stretched painfully from his suspended body weight. He was hanging directly over the Pit, the grate over the top rolled back so if he were to fall, he would drop straight into the open mouths of the goraths below.
In front of him, at the edge of the Pit, stood Paimon, her red-eyed camel by her side. The crown perched between her horns glinted in the torchlight, long shadows cast across her face.
“You can’t escape me, you know.” She studied her claws. “It’s a waste of time to try.”
Mist said nothing, but inwardly, he burned with conviction. Giving up was no longer an option. Not now that he had Lily. Not now that she had accepted him for what he was. Not now that he had tasted her sweet release and she had done the same to him.
There was so much he wanted to experience with her. So much he wanted to show her. So much he wanted to give her.
For her, he had to live. He had to believe he could find a way to be free.
“You think you’re the only hunter in Hell? The only one who can find wayward rogues?”
“I am the best.”
Paimon looked up and smiled. “So confident. I always admired that in you, but right now it’s just annoying. Return to me now, and we’ll forget this unpleasantness. We’ll go back to the way things were.”
An obvious lie. There was no ‘forgive and forget’ in Hell.
“So you don’t want to cooperate? Fine. Let’s try something else.” A malicious glint flashed in her eyes. “You were summoned by a human. At the precise moment you were about to be devoured, by freak coincidence, the first successful summoning of Mishetsumephtai in history occurred. You, a demon so unknown, most humans aren’t even aware of your existence. Seems odd, don’t you think?”
His heart started to pound. This was why he’d tried to leave Lily in the first place. It was like he’d once said to Asmodeus:If you really cared for her, you would have left her alone.
He now understood Asmodeus’s predicament on a visceral level. Only the cold claws of death could pry him from Lily’s side.
But if his witch ended up involved in this somehow… if Paimon found out she existed and got even an inkling of what she meant to him…
No.He wouldn’t allow it to happen.
“Nothing to say?” Paimon reached out and stroked the sandy hide of her camel. “Well, I have plenty. Isn’t that right, Shaheen?”
Shaheen blinked his long eyelashes.
Paimon’s head swiveled back around. “Since you’re being such an obliging listener at the moment, allow me to share. After Belial’s defection, I wondered what he could possibly be seeking on Earth when he already had everything in Hell. He was the most powerful King, held one of the largest, most lucrative territories in the underworld, and had legions of desperately loyal followers, waiting at his beck and call to serve him. And yet, he threw all that away to traipse about the Earth like a pathetic mortal, hiding in human form.” Her lip curled in revulsion.
“But I have finally discovered his true motives. Belial wants to usurp Lucifer and return to his long-ago former glory as High King of Hell. Asmodeus, Raum, and Mephistopheles are helping him. Together, they seek a power source on Earth that will give him the added strength he needs to defeat Lucifer.”
She was so far off, it was almost funny, except it wasn’t. Because, deluded though she was, if she was convinced Belial was plotting something, she would respond in kind. And that was no laughing matter.
“Do you want to know what I think? I think you found the rogues right away, as is your way. I think Belial offered you a taste of power, and you took the bait.” She smiled coldly. “Tell me, what did he promise? That he would free you from the brands? That he would gift you with a territory and legions of your own?”
She threw back her head and laughed, the haunting sound echoing around the cavernous chamber.
“You will never have those things. You will never be able to remove those brands. You will never be anything exceptmyservant,myHunter,myslave,mine!” Again, her voice boomed around the darkness. “You will always belong to me.”
Mist’s hands clenched into fists, his claws digging into his palms until they drew blood. He hung there helplessly while everything inside of him wanted to attack, to rend her limb from limb, to tear her head from her shoulders and paint the walls with her blood.
“Still not in a sharing mood? I’ll continue, then. After I made the discovery about Belial’s motives, I reached out to my sources, seeking to identify this power source he seeks. They returned with an interesting tale.
“Twenty-seven years ago, two witches were born. Twins, from a long line of the most powerful blood-borns the Earth has ever seen. Their coming was prophesied centuries ago and was marked by a rare meteor shower at the precise moment of their births.
