Vacation Hell: Princess of Hell #4 (7 page)

I wanted more. More. More—

He broke the kiss and stepped away, his breathing harsh, his eyes glittering. “What are you? Who are you?”

How could he not know? Was my marketing team truly not tapping all the markets, including the aquatic ones? I drew myself up, every inch of me regal, even in my T-shirt that said, Delicate Freakn’ Flower. “I am Satana Muriel Baphomet.”

While he might not have recognized the face, he knew the name. “The devil’s daughter. Fuck.”

And with those words, water dude spun on a heel and ran back to the waves. I might have protested his hasty departure except the view of his flexing buttocks proved quite hypnotizing. I stared at the rolling waves long after he disappeared from sight, and I might have stared longer had I not heard a bellow.

“MURIEL!”

It seemed Auric found out I was gone, and the tinkle of glass let me know someone wasn’t happy about it.

“
M
uriel
!” Again I heard the sweet, bellowed sound of my name. No matter how many times my angelic consort might yell, it never failed to tickle me. I trained my gaze to the sky, once again dark, as the mysterious light vanished with my sea visitor.

Still, being half demonic gave me some ability, and with a flick of my hand, a faint luminance lit the sky overhead. A sea breeze lifted a tendril and teased it past my cheek, yet I didn’t allow it to distract me from the aerial predator gliding on a current, arrowing rapidly toward me. My fallen angel approached upon shadowy wings, sporting a fearsome scowl.

I waved. “Hi, honey.” It seemed stupid to pretend I wasn’t there. He’d obviously noticed my absence in bed. The least I could do was reassure him. “I’m okay.” Then drive him crazy. “The guy you’re looking for went that way.” I pointed toward the mockingly calm ocean.

A roar of rage was the reply as my angry angel banked on his gossamer wings of gray, crisscrossing the still sea, looking for a merman long gone.

And what would you have done if your sea visitor had stayed?
Auric would have gone after him for sure. He’d gotten so protective since the debacle with Lilith. He might have ripped into the merman without asking questions. The thing I had to wonder was, what would I have done? A part of me seemed to think I would have intervened. For a stranger?

Not a stranger if he’s mine.

With thoughts like that lurking about, it was best the stranger had left. Better for us both, seeing as how calming Auric down took some doing. I caught some of his cursing. The words carried to me on the light sea breeze.

“I can’t believe we were taken unawares. Fuck! Fuck!” He whistled through the air, seeking something to vent on. But there was just little ol’ me, and even the thrust of my bare butt in the air didn’t tempt him for a spanking.

Sighing, I straightened and let the hem of my shirt cover me. If I wasn’t going to get some angry sex, or any sex, then enough already. I had sand that needed rinsing from unmentionable parts. “Are you done having a tantrum?”

“No.” A sulky fallen angel was sexier than it sounded. My rebuke, though, did have an effect, as he finally decided to land. With a flutter of his wings, Auric hit the beach with two bare feet, wearing only a pair of men’s boxers. Yummy. I didn’t bother to hide my interested stare.

The muscles across his chest and shoulders flexed as his shadow wings retracted, pulling into his back. I didn’t understand how the magic for them worked. When they appeared, they were solid to the touch, and yet, for all their massive size, once Auric put them away, so to speak, you couldn’t tell he had wings at all.

“Oh, baby, I’m over here,” I sang with a wave.

Only a dozen feet away from me, yet Auric didn’t take a step in my direction. If I were any other kind of girl, I might have taken offense at the fact that he didn’t envelop me in his arms and exclaim his happiness over finding me safe. But I was a princess of Hell. I understood danger just like Auric did.

Auric was a warrior, which meant his first priority was to assess the situation. He’d scouted from above, and now he scouted on the ground, all his senses still on high alert.

Getting bored of the posturing, I buffed my nails on my shirt and blew on them. It didn’t help my chipped nail polish—the beach was harsh on manicures—but it did show my state of mind.

“Don’t you play blasé with me,” he growled. “This is serious, Muriel. How do you think I felt when I woke up to find you gone?”

“Not my fault you’re a heavy sleeper.”

“I’m not!” If he could have, he would have blown smoke his anger simmered so hot. “Something kept me, all of us, asleep.”

“Weird.” It also explained why it had taken him that long to come find me.

“That’s all you’ve got to say? Weird? How about irresponsible? What were you thinking? How many times do I have to warn you against acting rashly?”

He thought I’d done this? “Don’t blame me for this one. I’m innocent.” I swear I felt a drop of snow as Hell suffered a sudden temperature drop at my stretching of the truth. Innocent wasn’t a word I could use often, unless unjustly accused. Again, a rare occurrence. Most of the time, I was guilty. Except in this case. “I woke up on the beach with no idea how I got there.”

“You sleep-walked?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. All I know was I awoke lying in the sand, all alone.” I batted my lashes for sympathy, only to find myself ignored.

Auric spun around and peeked at the beach, still illuminated by the light I’d called. He knelt at the spot in the sand where I’d left a Muriel-sized indentation. “I see only your steps leaving this spot. But none arriving.” His brow furrowed. “Did you portal in?”

I planted my hands on my hips. “I told you it wasn’t me. It must have been
him
.”

That caught his attention, and his head whipped up as he narrowed his gaze on me. “Who is this guy you’ve referred to twice? Where is he? Who is he?”

I shrugged. It seemed more expedient.

“Did you talk to him?” Auric asked.

“A little.” And I’d kissed him, but I wasn’t sure confessing right now was a good idea. Then again…the road to adventure was paved with good intentions gone bad. “We mostly argued about who was haunting who, and then we made out.”

Honesty, such a powerful weapon in the wrong hands. In this case, my telling him the truth acted like an emotional nuke. Auric reeled as if injured.

It wasn’t anything he would ever admit to. My fallen angel was old school when it came to expressing any emotions he considered emasculating. Yet, the tenseness in his posture, and the deeply connected bond between us, meant I felt his agitation. His jealousy. His fear. A fear he’d lose another part of me.

Never.

Forget waiting for him to approach me. I ran to him. My arms wrapped around his upper body, and for a moment, he held himself rigid before hugging me back, his arms tight bands around me.

“You will never lose me,” I whispered against his bare chest. “You own my heart. You gave me a soul.” Because I was pretty sure before I’d met Auric I hadn’t had a proper one.

“You are my world.”

The declaration was mushy sweet, and I loved it. Loved him.

I lifted my face, my lips seeking his. We clung together for a moment, two bodies and minds meshed as one, so of course, reality intruded with a shouted, “Did you find her?”

My dark vampire’s query broke the kiss as Auric replied, “I’ve got her. Be up in a minute.”

I stroked Auric’s bristled cheek as his gaze returned to mine. “I’m surprised they didn’t come down with you,” I noted.

“They wanted to, but we didn’t want to leave Lucinda unguarded. And we couldn’t be sure we’d find you on the beach. So David was left to guard our little girl while Teivel searched the grounds.”

How my life had changed in the past months. I no longer had just myself to worry about. I had a family, a whole bunch of them who worried and depended on me. “I wasn’t in any danger.” Even now, I still believed that.

“Then how did you get here?”

Good question, one that I didn’t have an answer for. I clung to Auric as he swept me into his arms, his gray wings exploding from his back in a shower of gossamer feathers. With a mighty leap, he sprang into the air, flapping his wings hard, lifting us aloft.

How I loved these rare moments when we got to fly, racing on the air currents, swooping in the sky, getting dropped.

“Eek!” I squealed as I tumbled down into a waiting set of arms.

Teivel cast a sardonic gaze on me. “That was a pretty girly reaction.”

I tossed my disheveled hair. “In case you haven’t noticed, I am a girl.”

His cool lips found the lobe of my ear, and I shivered as he whispered, “But I much prefer it when you’re an evil vixen.”

Shudder. If I had more time, I would have totally shown him how evil, yet Auric landed, David appeared in the door, and dawn lightened the sky.

When Auric started making breakfast—which started with a strong pot of coffee—I didn’t argue. Then again, I didn’t have time since I was interrogated by my other two men, with Auric piping in for good measure.

Since I couldn’t avoid it, I told my boys what happened. It really wasn’t much, and by the end of my tale, they were just as baffled as me.

“So he says he wasn’t the one sending you the subliminal messages?” David asked.

“Lying obviously,” Auric retorted.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’ve got a pretty good radar when it comes to fibs, and as far as I can tell, he was getting the same kind of weird shit happening to him as I was.”

“But if he’s not to blame, who is?” Teivel interjected as he stole the last piece of bacon from David’s reaching fingers and handed it to me.

My smile and wink let him know his gift wouldn’t go unrewarded.

“Did someone call him in the hopes he’d kill you?” Auric mused.

Bacon gone, I debated licking the grease from the empty plate. Deciding the mockery wasn’t worth it, I replied instead. “Like I told you already, I didn’t get any bad vibes from the merdude. Despite the circumstances, I don’t think he meant me any harm.”

“I don’t understand why you feel a need to defend him. He was obviously up to no good,” Auric snapped.

“Perhaps he planned to kidnap you?” Teivel cracked his knuckles.

“Then why didn’t he? He could have.” Yet he’d chosen rather to abandon me and return to the ocean, the jerk.

“What of the kiss?” my vampire tossed out.

Teivel’s query hung in the air. I’d kind of told Auric about it, but avoided telling the others. Living with a bunch of supernatural guys, though, meant not much got past them. I squirmed in my seat as their gazes zeroed in on me.

“What of the kiss? It was two lips touching. No big deal. He never even copped a feel.” The rejection still galled. I could now see why the Red Queen was known for chopping off heads.

“Don’t tell me Poseidon’s son follows a righteous path?” Auric’s incredulity colored his words.

A snicker left me. “A pious son? That would mean the apple fell really far from the tree, given Neptune’s reputation for being a bit of a manwhore.”

Leaning against the counter, Teivel remarked, “Are we even sure the fellow you met on the beach is Neptune’s son? My lord Lucifer never mentioned the sea god as having any progeny.”

“What’s progeny mean?” The query came from a blonde cherub who’d wandered into the kitchen wearing a pink nightgown and rubbing sleep from her eyes with a chubby fist.

I tugged her onto my lap for a snuggle and answered. “Progeny are people’s kids.”

“Oh. Cool.” Then because Lucinda was a child, her mind veered off in a strange direction. “Did Tristan show you his palace, Mommy?”

In the midst of cutting up some leftover pancakes for her, I paused and blinked at my daughter. I think we all did.

I asked, “Who is Tristan?”

“The man in the sea. The one you met last night.”

So far, nothing too freaky. Lucinda could have eavesdropped and found that out easily. “What does Tristan look like?” Because that was one thing I’d not really gotten into.

“He’s got really long, blond hair, longer than yours, Mommy. He’s Nep-toon’s son.” She beamed. “He swims with hellphins.” The pit’s version of a dolphin except redder, sporting a jagged razor-sharp fin and even deadlier teeth.

I couldn’t be sure about the swimming with the fishies thing. The guy seemed pretty alive to me, but other than that, she’d described my nighttime visitor. “How do you know about this Tristan? Has he been here? Did he talk to you?” Perhaps she was mixing a character from a fantasy story or movie with real life.

“No, silly.” My little imp grinned, popping that dimple, but I didn’t let it sway me from my line of questioning.

“Has he threatened you?” This from Auric, who’d left his spot at the stove flipping pancakes to kneel by Lucinda’s chair. “If he’s scared or done anything to you, Daddy will kill him.”

Auric would also get his rocks polished if he kept being so darned overprotectively cute.

“Tristan is nice. Mommy is going to like him, too.”

“No, Mommy’s not,” I muttered, slipping into the third person.

“Silly Mommy. Great-auntie Fate says you’re meant to be. But it was taking too long, and the big bad thing is coming, so I made it go faster.”

Wow, so many things in one sentence. Where to start?

Auric focused on one. “What do you mean, you made it go faster?”

“I sent Mommy dreams so she’d go to the beach.”

My eyes widened. “You did that? Not him?”

“Me. Me. Me,” she sang. “And I sent a message, in a bottle.” Lucinda clapped her hands. “A magic bottle. It told Tristan to come to the beach.”

Pieces began to click into place. “But how did I get there?”

“I opened a door for you, Mommy. But it wasn’t easy.” My daughter scowled at her daddies and Teivel. “They were snuggling you. With no clothes.” Her nose wrinkled. “I think I am going to buy you pajamas for Christmas.”

Giving my lovers clothing to hide their perfection? What an evil idea. I could have wiped a tear in pride. She was so definitely my daughter.

“So let me get this straight,” Auric said, his voice calm, deceptively so. I could feel the tension thrumming within him. “You were the one who gave your mom an urge to come to the beach. And then you called this sea creature.”

“He’s a merman, Daddy,” Lucinda corrected.

“And you made sure your mom was there to meet him.”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“Because he’s going to be daddy number four.”