Seduced by Darkness (7 page)

Through it all, Heidi’s ass never stopped moving. Her inner
muscles clenched, gripping him hard and fast, stroking him all the way to the
root of his shaft, summoning heat and electric bliss from the bottom of his
pulsing sac.

Heidi’s body shook. Her ass slammed against his belly and he
felt her orgasm hit in one intense burst that made light erupt behind his
eyelids a moment before his cock did.

Hot, sticky semen burst from his rod, drenching Heidi’s back
channel in the physical result of two men’s hunger for their mate. She arched
into it, taking it all, her breaths coming faster with every pulse of her
still-spasming pussy.

Luke pulled his fingers from Lillian’s depths, tossed the
candle to the floor and wrapped his arms around Heidi. Yanking her back against
him, he rolled over and sat on the edge of the altar, waiting for the world to
right itself around him.

Heidi placed her palms over his and squeezed, the rhythm of
her breathing growing shallower with each passing second.

She’s so beautiful
.

“So beautiful,” Luke agreed, placing a soft kiss on top of
her curls.

He didn’t know how long they sat there like that. A second.
A minute. Days. It wouldn’t have mattered. The threat surrounding them seemed
to fade into the night, giving them space to recover.

“It wasn’t just the sex,” Lillian whispered at last, her
slightly accented voice breaking the sensual spell that had been woven around
them. “That’s what I didn’t understand. It was… this bond. Their indulgent,
solicitous need to please you. To hold you.” She lifted her hand from her thigh
where it had come to rest, and wiggled her fingertips in front of Heidi and
Luke’s faces. “See the red flare in the magical strands? That’s love. Real,
intense, all-encompassing love.”

Luke didn’t see a thing.

He’d just opened his mouth to say so when the church’s
foundation began to rumble, causing a deep quaking -- like thunder booming much
too close -- to echo through the place.

A moment later, the walls came crumbling down.

Chapter Six

Just one minute more… I want to hold her another second,
just long enough to
--

Luke’s voice boomed through the cavern of Varin’s mind, then
snapped abruptly, the sound echoing in his brain like the lingering shadow of a
distant memory he couldn’t quite grasp. He tried to focus, to peer through Luke’s
eyes, but the man’s eyelids had drifted closed and all Varin could see was the
darkness that had been his constant companion for much too long.

Heidi! Damn it, Luke! Where is she? Can you see her?

Luke opened his eyes. There was smoke everywhere, a thick,
billowing black cloud of it. It clogged the man’s throat, filled his nostrils
and made them both gag.

Luke’s arms were empty. He reached out, clawing desperately
in a feeble search for the woman who only moments ago had been tucked safely
against his chest.

“Heidi!” Luke bellowed, the scream driven by the
soul-numbing fear that had enveloped them both.

Let me. Please, Luke. Let me find her
.

Bits of plaster and brick fell around Luke’s head, some of
the larger pieces digging into his arms and bare chest as they toppled down
from the ceiling. Varin held his breath while Luke dropped to his hands and
knees and inched forward, knowing the man needed to be in control just as much
as Varin did.

If anything had happened to Heidi…

He didn’t even dare finish that thought. They’d been through
too much, sacrificed everything to find even just a shred of happiness. To have
it all end like this, on the decaying, stained floor of a crumbling building,
meant all that struggle had been for naught. Baal would win. And he’d gloat for
all eternity.

Luke hesitated. His nails dug into the floorboards, leaving
deep gashes as he dragged them over the blackened surface. The smoke had
intensified, making it hard to see, to breathe, to think.

“All right,” Luke conceded, and at that moment Varin knew
exactly how much it had cost him to utter those words. “Her life is in your
hands. Take care of her.”

A whoosh of hot air spun Varin around. A moment later, he
was in full control of Luke’s body, trying to peer through squinting eyes and
lowered lashes. She was close. He could feel her presence deep in his heart.

It made no sense, he knew, but he would have bet his
immortal soul on the fact that Baal hadn’t gotten his filthy claws on her. And
as long as the Lord of the Underworld hadn’t yet dragged her into his lair,
there was still a chance Luke and Heidi would survive this. There was still
hope.

For all the good hope would do them.

“
Menerva est’ar va
!”

Lillian’s booming voice reached his ears a moment before the
smoke cleared around him abruptly, as though someone had puffed out a breath
strong enough to scatter the scalding mass.

Varin blinked fast, trying to focus through the mist
clouding his vision. The smoke had stung Luke’s eyes, making them water.

He saw her at last, crumpled in a heap at the edge of the
room. For a moment, he could only make out the blood pooling beneath her, and
his heart did a skittering flip-flop in his chest.

Rushing to her side, he fell to his knees and nearly cried
out when her eyelashes fluttered.

She opened her eyes and pierced him with an intense,
soul-shattering stare. “Varin,” she whispered, trailing her fingertips over
Luke’s jaw.

His knees went weak at the sound of his name on her lips.
The fact that she’d recognized him instantly, even though he still inhabited
another man’s body, should have floored him. Instead, it only reinforced what
he already knew.

Heidi was like no one he’d ever met during the span of his
long existence, either in the mortal or immortal realms. She was unique, his
Heidi… and he’d be damned if he’d lose her to a creature that would trap her in
a timeless realm and torture her for eons.

Lillian skidded to a stop beside Heidi’s fallen form and
dropped to a squatting position beside her. Under different circumstances,
Varin might have been aware of Lillian’s nude body, glistening with sweat and a
thick film of soot from the billowing smoke.

As it was, he only had eyes for one woman.

He held her right hand while Lillian grabbed the other. “I
think we’ve just run out of time,” she said, her blue eyes wide and imploring
as she fixed him with a pleading stare. “Which spell did you cast? When you
brought me through the veil with you -- which one?”

Varin shook his head, wincing at the terror in her voice.
Had she feared him just as much when she’d been in the Underworld with him? Had
she hated him as much as he hated Baal for keeping him and everyone he cared
about captive for so long?

He licked his suddenly dry lips and nearly staggered at the
unfamiliar feel of Luke’s silky-soft mouth beneath his tongue. “The binding
spell,” he murmured softly, unable to meet Lillian’s eyes. He kept his gaze
focused on Heidi instead, who was struggling to stand.

When her torso swayed unsteadily as she rose, Varin pulled
her into his chest and pressed a hand behind her head. The wound had nearly
stopped bleeding, and for the first time Varin’s heartbeat slowed a little,
right down to something an athlete might feel after running a marathon.

“The… binding,” Lillian said as a howl rose on the wind. A
gaping hole where the roof had been allowed some of the moonlight to pour
through, and the silvery light caused her blue eyes to glow with a fevered
incandescence. “You’re sure?”

He swallowed hard. “Yes.”

Even Heidi looked startled when she pulled back. “But that’s
--”

“Yes.”

He knew what it was. A mating spell. An incantation uttered
to bind souls together for all eternity. No wonder no Demon Guardian before him
had thought to try it on a mere mortal.

The second explosion hit without warning, sending shards of
split brick, wood and dust soaring into the air around them. Varin protected
Heidi from the flying particles as best he could by shielding her with his
body, but he knew it wasn’t enough. The earth shook as though all the demons
residing in Hell had decided to break through the surface right underneath
their feet.

Lillian’s set her mouth in a grim line. She nodded at Heidi.
“Together.”

The sound of their raised voices made Varin cling to Heidi
even harder. Her breasts pressed against his chest and she wrapped her arms
around him as she chanted, seeming to brace herself for the end of the world.

Pain lanced through him. The scattered fragments of
crumbling brick and mortar seemed to aim right for him, but the agony ripping
through his soul was a thousand times more difficult to bear.

The magical words drifted high into the air, more powerful
even than the menacing growls and fierce roars coming from outside the fallen
church. Luke’s body trembled, his soul answering their call.

Lillian slipped her hand into his, closing the circle,
heightening the impact of the channeling process. He felt the power of the
magic they spun around them, wielding it through Luke to filter the force of
their spell and send it bursting out a hundred times as strong.

The incantation faded as the women reached the final stanza.
He heard the words drift and vanish, followed the dying notes as they scattered
through the filthy air.

And then… nothing happened.

Laughter boomed around them, familiar and so evil it made
his blood turn to ice. Baal’s vicious cackle seemed to swagger, an arrogant
sound that caused Varin to tighten his grip, even though he already held Heidi
as tightly as he dared.

They’d tried to take on the Lord of Darkness himself, and
failed miserably. Now the people Varin loved most in the entire world would pay
the price for that foolish attempt.

Heat rose around them, sizzling the few floorboards that
remained untouched by the rising earth rumbling beneath their feet. It burned
Luke’s skin, singed the hair on the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry,” Varin whispered, tilting Heidi’s chin up with
his fingertips and pressing a tender kiss to her swollen lips.

She nodded and started to speak, but he lifted a finger to
her mouth. He couldn’t bear to hear her tell him it was all right.

It wasn’t. It never would be.

Lillian squeezed his hand. He marveled at the way her
fingers stayed surprisingly cool even in the face of the rising heat that would
soon envelop them all and draw them down into the Underworld for the rest of
eternity.

On impulse, he turned his head and leaned in, sliding his
lips against Lillian’s for a feather-light graze of his mouth against hers.

“So sorry,” he whispered, touching the tip of his tongue to
her lower lip in a gentle, tentative swipe.

She froze. In the span of a heartbeat, Heidi froze with her,
leaving him holding two perfectly still marble statues in his arms.

For a moment, Varin wondered if he’d made a bigger mess of
things than Baal could have ever done. Luckily for him, a moment was all he
had.

Disaster saved him from having to contemplate that
terrifying thought. In a flash, the entire world seemed to shatter and break on
an intense burst of light.

Luke cried out, the howling scream coming from somewhere
deep in Varin’s brain. The spell Lillian and Heidi had so carefully crafted
suddenly flooded Luke’s soul, kicking Varin out of the other man’s body and
sending him soaring, face-first, into oblivion.

Chapter Seven

She’d died.

Though Heidi refused open her eyes, she could feel the
inevitable truth of that knowledge in every fiber of her being. Silence
surrounded her, thick and heavy with foreboding. She remembered the church
collapsing, the guttural howls in the air that signaled the demons’ pleasure.

She could even remember the heavy weight pressing against
her heart as Varin’s lips made contact with Lillian’s.

And then… that’s where things turned fuzzy. There’d been a
scream. And then another and another, the cries blending together and making it
impossible to know who’d been in so much pain.

Heidi sucked in a breath between clenched teeth, remembering
the stab of agony in the back of her head. She’d slammed the base of her skull
against something when a large piece of debris whacked her in the shoulder and
sent her skittering backward. The edge of the altar, she thought, though she
couldn’t be sure. Smoke had obscured her vision, making it impossible to see
two steps in front of her.

Odd… there was no pain now. Not even a lingering numbness or
chill from the blows her body and head had endured. There was only warmth.
Pleasant and balmy, even the heat held no hint of the sweltering temperature
that had threatened to scorch the building, and them with it. And then there
was the scent. A pleasant aroma tickled her nostrils, causing her to furrow her
brow and force herself to think before she could name it.

Flowers
. Redolent with sweetness and delicate
tendrils of honeyed perfume.

Okay, she didn’t need to be smacked over the head with a
clue stick to understand there was something terribly wrong here. She’d been in
Hell. She knew the stench and horrifying racket that belonged to the
Underworld, and none were as benign as flowers and a soft breeze. And… wait,
was that a bird’s carefree chirp echoing above her head?

That last sound undid her. Forcing her eyelids to open took
more determination than she’d thought. The sea of clear blue that filled her
gaze made her gasp and shoot up. Her hands sprang out at her sides, steadying
her as she glanced around her surroundings.

Her breath caught in her throat, and the steady
thump
thump
of her heart drowned out all other sounds. She sat in a meadow filled
with dazzling wildflowers. Purples, pinks and reds tinted the green grass with
splotches of bright contrast. Near her foot, a bunny sat on its hind legs and
stared at her, his tiny nose twitching as he waited for her to make a move.

He bolted as she twisted sideways to take in more of her
surroundings. When her gaze fell on her men, she feared her heart had stopped
beating altogether. The steady, fearful thumping against her ribcage was gone.
So was the rush of blood in her ears and the memory of those screams. For a
second that seemed to stretch into minutes, it felt as though the world stood
still.

Oh yeah. She’d died all right.

But against all odds, she’d gone to Heaven.

Varin lay on his back, sprawled among a nest of
purplish-blue blossoms that bent and stretched their soft petals toward him.
The flowers appeared to caress his skin as they waved slightly in the soft
breeze.

He slept like a man who’d never known fear, or pain. His
chest rose and fell rhythmically and a lock of dark hair fell over his right
eye. The left side of his mouth curled slightly in a contented smile, his lips
parted as though on a sigh.

One arm lay out to his side. The other, he’d curled around
Luke to twine his fingers in the man’s hair.

For his part, Luke slept with his cheek on Varin’s stomach,
the tip of his nose just brushing the patch of curls at Varin’s groin. That
same serene smile had tilted his lips as well, and the sight of it knocked
Heidi’s heart back into fully-functional mode.

Heidi swore low under her breath as tears filled her eyes.
Struggling to blink them back, she turned onto her hands and knees and crawled
to where they were.

She’d been wrong. She hadn’t died. She was dreaming.

Well, fine, then. If this was the only way she could be with
them, she’d take it. When she finally awoke in the depths of the Underworld,
she’d take this fantasy with her. No matter what Baal did, she’d always
remember her men as they looked now. Contented and so in love that her body
trembled with every step she took toward them.

When she reached their side, she didn’t know who to touch
first. Surprised to find her hand shaking, she let her fingertips dart almost
of their own accord over Varin’s flat abs to drift into Luke’s silky blond
locks.

Digging her teeth into her lower lip, she stretched out
beside Varin and tossed a leg over his. Her palm closed over Varin’s, their
fingers intertwining in Luke’s hair.

“I had the strangest dream,” Varin murmured, and his voice
slid through her like melted chocolate.

Heidi whimpered, burrowing her face in the crook of his
shoulder, inhaling the musky, perfectly male scent of him.

“Not a dream,” Luke said, lifting his head to watch them.
His eyes widened as he took in the sight of Varin, and he reached up to stroke
the man’s jaw. His thumb skidded over Varin’s lips, and Varin opened to him,
darting the tip of his tongue over Luke’s skin.

A shiver seemed to ripple through all three of them at once.
A tingle of heat nestled between Heidi’s legs, determined and insistent. It had
been too long since they’d all been together like this. Although she had
questions -- judging by the baffled looks on the men’s faces as they glanced
around them, they
all
had questions -- she was willing to put them aside
and drift on this brief wave of newfound euphoria.

“What --”

She rose to a sitting position and pressed a finger to
Luke’s mouth, silencing him. “Not now. Please.” The last word was a whimper.

Luke understood. She’d known he would.

Shuffling up to kneel on the other side of Varin, Luke
leaned in, cupped the back of her head and pulled her forward, their mouths
coming together in a soft, soul-shattering kiss. She sighed and opened to him,
splaying her hands out on his chest. His tongue teased her lips, sliding over
them in a slow, infinitely sensual rhythm.

Warm heat closed around her right nipple, ripping a sudden
gasp from her throat. Luke chuckled against her mouth, his own attention never
wavering from the determined strokes of his tongue against hers.

Varin’s teeth scraped her nipple, sending a shiver of
awareness down her skin. The sensitive tissue bunched and stiffened. He sucked
at it greedily, cupping her other breast in his palm, twisting the lonely
nipple between thumb and forefinger.

Heidi’s folds grew slick. Moisture trickled between the
swollen lips of her pussy, causing her to squirm slightly. She reached out with
both hands, finding her men’s erections and stroking each in a closed fist.
Twin shudders rewarded her efforts.

They were both hard, ready for her. Her inner walls clenched
and squeezed in remembered pleasure, desire coursing through her veins, warming
her from the inside.

The sun beat down on them, but it was a soft warmth,
pleasant even. The entire scenario was perfect.

Too perfect
, a little voice muttered in the back of
her mind.
It’s not going to last. It never does. This is probably another
one of Baal’s little tricks. And it’s working
.

Squeezing her eyelids shut, Heidi silenced the annoyingly
insistent reminder of all they’d been through. Sure, she knew better than to
let her guard down. Baal was probably even now watching and getting a good
laugh at their expense.

So be it. She wasn’t about to give up the most satisfying
sensation she’d felt in much too long just so she wouldn’t give him the
satisfaction of thinking he’d won.

Hell, let him think whatever he wanted. Right now, she,
Varin and Luke were the real winners.

Her palms stroked their cocks, sliding up and down the
engorged length of the thick shafts. Just beneath the head, where she knew they
both loved to be touched, she made a circle with thumb and forefinger and
squeezed slightly before jerking her hands toward the soft skin of tender sacs.

“If death by sex was ever an option, this is the way I’d
want to go,” Luke murmured, each movement of his lips a kiss against her own.

Heidi made a sound, a cross between a whimper and a sob.
Goddess, why hadn’t she realized how much she adored his light, teasing
demeanor? She thought about the way she’d treated him, growing angry when he’d
sought to nudge her out of her dark moods with a wry remark, and her throat
clogged.

“I love you,” she whispered as Varin’s fingers nudged her
pussy lips open. Before he could reply, she glanced down and tilted Varin’s
chin so he could look into her eyes. “And you. I’d do anything for you. For both
of you.”

“Baby,” Luke murmured, trailing a spiraling wave of hot
kisses down her breasts, “You already have.”

Varin’s chuckle resonated with the foreign sound of his
carefree pleasure, and she suddenly found she never wanted it to stop. She
didn’t think she’d ever get tired of hearing him laugh.

“We love you too,” he said, slipping his index finger
between her slit and rubbing the tender bud of her clit. “Without you, we’d
still --”

“Shhh…” she soothed, her head falling back as the men
concentrated on overwhelming her with deep, soul-numbing pleasure. “It was
nothing.”

She’d said it just to get another laugh out of him, so when
Varin growled in warning, she furrowed her brows. “What?”

“If you ever do anything half as dangerous as what you’ve
done --”

“Repeatedly,” Luke put in helpfully.

Heidi glowered at him, then fixed Varin with a defiant
stare. “You’ll what?”

A deep rumble that seemed to come straight from Varin’s
chest was her only warning. Nudging Luke aside with his elbow, he wrapped his
arms around Heidi’s waist and drove her into the ground, covering her body with
his.

His cock delved between her folds in one quick, powerful
stroke. She cried out, her body rapidly molding itself to the strong muscles
covering her form. Her hips reeled upward, making small circles as he dove into
her mercilessly, again and again.

She reached up, tracing her fingertips over the cords that
stood out in his neck. His dark eyes looked even darker than she remembered.
Black and hungry, he watched her with a possessiveness that threatened to
devour her whole.

Only Luke’s easy laugh kept her from getting lost in those
eyes, from capitulating whatever shred of dignity she had left and begging him
to fuck her, to love her, to dominate and possess her.

“You have to admit you were asking for it,” Luke said, the
smile never leaving his face.

As Varin thrust his cock deep into her, she glanced at Luke.
This time, she had no desire to see the smile wiped from his gorgeous features.
He wasn’t as intense and demanding as Varin, but that’s what made Luke so
different.

So special. So…
hers
.

Varin pushed into her cunt forcefully, again and again,
withdrawing almost the full length of his cock before pounding it back into
her. Heidi’s inner walls clenched, desperately gripping the head of his shaft
for fear of losing it altogether.

When he pulled out of her completely, she sobbed,
instinctively reaching for his cock. It was wet with their juices, slick with
the proof of their lovemaking. She stroked him, wondering how long he’d make
her wait.

“Straddle him, Heidi,” Varin said, with a nudge of his head
in Luke’s direction. “The poor man’s waited long enough.”

Luke stretched out on the ground, one hand wrapped around
the root of his solid shaft, the other beckoning her closer. “Love me, demon-child,”
he whispered, and whatever reservations she still held about their future
shattered with those few little words.

She rolled over and did as she was told, only briefly
wondering how it was that she took orders so well from the two men in her life
when she’d prided herself on being stubborn and independent for so long.

Luke gripped her hips, bringing her down on his cock. She
sighed, the questions fleeing from her mind as he filled her, stretched her,
completed her.

No, that wasn’t right. She didn’t feel complete yet. She
frowned, trying to glance behind her and catch sight of Varin. From the corner
of her eye, she saw him kneeling behind her, his dark hair glistening in the
sunlight.

Varin’s fingers spread her ass cheeks and the heel of his
palm nudged the base of her spine, driving her forward. She pressed her breasts
against Luke’s chest, giving Varin more room to explore the dark, intimate
parts of her. He rubbed some of her slick moisture over the tight rose of her
anus, then slipped his thumb inside the forbidden entrance past the knuckle.

As Luke thrust into her soaked folds, Varin positioned the
thick, meaty head of his cock at her back entrance and pushed in slowly,
carefully, until his massive shaft sank into her body balls-deep.

The groan that slipped from her lips was borne of pure,
total bliss.
Now
she was complete.

Varin cupped her breasts, squeezing her nipples as he found
his rhythm. Luke was just as relentless, his thumb softly caressing her clit
while his cock sent waves of tingling sensation through her entire body.

The climax built rapidly and in the span of one more
heartbeat, she was soaring, swiftly surging past the point of no return.
Heidi’s muscles tensed, her orgasm starting low in her pussy and exploding
outward in a mass of trembling nerve endings and waves of sheer pleasure.

Her own spasms set off the men’s releases. She couldn’t have
said who came first, likely because they were so attuned to one another that
their joint orgasms thundered as one. She felt them unleash their seed deep
inside her body, flooding her pussy and tight anal channel with slick, warm
cum.