Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) (2 page)

“Hielel,” said the next, flickering through a wide range of personas, as always. No one knew his true visage except for the four brothers and their father. “Better known as Lucifer.”

Sorrow sagged across her features, and she rubbed her breastbone, wincing, as if shrapnel pierced her heart. A tiny part of him hoped she would be pleased to discover he still lived.

Too bad hope was a disease that often turned one into a pining wastrel.

Behind her, his twin brother, Elias—Eliel—stared at Micah and pressed his lips against Madison’s ear. “I think you remember me, princess.” His hand curled around the front of her throat and snatched her tight against his solid frame. He represented an immovable wall of muscle and justice and wouldn’t hesitate to act on the murderous glint in his eyes. Reparations through torture were his favorite type of compensation.

“Micah is dead?” She sounded breathy and maybe a touch sad. Her eyes drooped as if she might cry, and her bottom lip quivered. Those visible manifestations of emotion vanished an instant later.

Even though he’d almost died, Micah managed to survive the dragon blade Madison had rammed into his chest. The look in her eyes when she’d stabbed him…not one of victory, but remorse. Optimism once again surged. Would she be happy when she discovered he lived?

“It’s what you wanted.” Raguel’s demonic claws emerged, silver and red, glinting as they tapped against his thigh. A taunt to use them on her if she failed to behave. By the wary gleam in her eye, she understood his silent promise.

Lucifer watched her, his thoughts difficult to read as he continued to click through personas. His introspection would run deeper than Raguel’s, whose emotions were the more reactive of the two Kings.

“No.” She bit her bottom lip, but Micah caught the barest tremble before her teeth subjugated the tender flesh. After ingesting his seraph—his angelic power—a lie would inflict pain if she prevaricated to him. Yet she could pull off an untruth to his brothers. That left him unsure what to believe.

“Enough.” Madison jerked in the direction of his voice as he stepped out of the shadows near Raguel. “Leave her be, brothers.”

“Micah!” Joy surged across her features.

Jerking out of Elias’s hold—only because he allowed her to leave his cage—she walked straight to Micah and threw herself against him. He stumbled from the impact of her embrace, but she clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and gripping him so tight she’d have harmed a mortal. Her very naked breasts scrubbed against his chest with each inhalation, forcing him to tamp down his inappropriate libido. He needed answers, not a fuck-session.

She buried her face in the curve of his neck and inhaled, her body vibrating as if she cried or felt fear. Was her reaction genuine? Goddamn, he hated doubting her, but she’d left him with little choice.

“I thought I killed you.” Leaning back, she met his gaze.

Moisture darkened her lashes. She’d cried after she stabbed him. Cried now after ascertaining he lived. That meant she cared, right? No matter how much he rejected hope, the seed wormed its way into him. He kept his expression neutral and his voice cool, unreflective of any emotions. “You almost succeeded.” Using a fingertip, he ran it down the side of her face before moving his hand to the back of her head and palming her nape. Mixed with her spicy, eclectic scent was another flavor he knew and had tasted often. “You smell like Phoenix.” His hand tightened against her neck.

“You fucked him. Why shouldn’t I?” Madison reached up and reciprocated his hold, winding his hair around her fingers and snatching at his strands. He hissed at the sting. “Fair play and all.”

The Ark of Heaven had known his woman in the physical sense. Riptides of emotions were like crosscurrents colliding, divergent and yet similar. In the span of a moment, he fantasized about killing the other man
and
joining him in pleasuring Madison.

“I expected you to be afraid to see me.” Micah ran a hand down her back, clothes materializing from his movements. “Can’t have my brothers ogling my wife.”

How much of her did Phoenix explore with his mouth
?

“Should I be afraid?”

“You did try to kill me.”

She quirked her lips. “Your lack of faith wounds me, husband. If I’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

No grimace, which indicated she told the truth.

Taking a step backward, she gripped the buttons on his shirt. His hold shifted to her hips, restricting the amount of square footage he would allow between them.

Madison quickly undid the buttons on his shirt and shoved the material aside to get a gander at the injury she’d given him. Angry pink flesh bubbled like a blister. His father had given the only other wound that’d nearly killed him. But that was another lifetime ago.

Madison thumbed the gash, and Micah grimaced at the pain her touch elicited. She circled the pad against the wound and channeled a thin stream of her mojo into him. He breathed deeply as her magic entered his skin.

Hello, hard-on number two
. And just when he’d gotten his lust under control. He caught her wrist. “Your power isn’t in healing, kitten.”

She removed her thumb. The angry gash remained unaffected.

“I appreciate the effort, however.”

She elevated her gaze. “I missed your heart, or you
would
be dead.”

Even though he saw no evidence of a lie, he shot a questioning glance at Lucifer.

“She speaks true.”

Madison jabbed Micah in the ribs with her knuckles. He grunted.

“Apologize for doubting me.”

She had intentionally missed his heart? No small kernel of optimism this time. His heart took a direct hit from the rose-colored glasses. Allowing the cancerous disease of hope to fester with his vulnerable emotions would be a grave misjudgment on his part. At least not until he knew exactly where his relationship with his wife stood. “You stabbed me with a dragon blade that you knew was toxic to me. An apology will not be forthcoming.”

“I had to make it look good for Kur. I told you I’d draw the last blood.”

They’d gone into a fight in Hell with a common goal to determine which one was the more skilled opponent. He drew first blood and Madison had vowed to draw the last. She’d succeeded, but only after he let his guard down. At the time, he hadn’t been certain if the regret on her features was real or a hallucination of his near-death experience. He
did
recall her crying.

Moments after she’d stabbed him, Elias flashed him away to safety and she’d escaped Hell with the dragon, Kur.

“You shouldn’t have agreed to the match if you wanted me to take it easy on you.”

A slow grin curved his lips. The imp attempted to prod his ego. “I took it easy on you, kitten.”

“Sure you did.”

He kissed her, setting his lips over hers and using his thumb on her chin to tug her mouth open. His tongue slashed across hers and she melted. There would be no talking his cock back into softness until he’d buried it deep inside her. Holding her tight to his frame, he could feel the soft line of her body against his. She offered no protest when he submerged a hand in her hair and angled her head for a deeper embrace. Like elixir of the gods, her flavor was potent and addictive with one sample…but he could taste Phoenix, too, and that rattled him.

“Micah….” She whispered a protest when he pulled back just enough to gaze at her.

“Phoenix has fed you well. I can sense his messian running through your veins.” He clasped her face between his hands, a little jealous Phoenix had fed her with his magic. “Your succubus is serene, which means he fucked you well, too.”

“Fucked me
very
well.”

His jaw tightened. It should’ve been him fucking her, not the Ark of Heaven. The injustice of it! He exhaled. A rattling sound emerged, one that reminded him of a lion’s low-throated warning growl.

“She’ll betray you again,
zkihtak
,” Elias said, calling him
brother
in the demon language, Xapil. “You’re a fool if you believe anything she says.”

Madison tensed and spun around in his arms. Micah could only imagine the hostile glare she turned on his brother. “And you’re a fool if you listen only with your eyes.”

These two would never get along.

“Allow me a day alone with her.” His twin blew her a kiss. “One day and her tune will forever be altered.”

It was his turn to tense. No threat against Madison would be tolerated and his brother’s request sounded like a hazard to her health. “Why?”

“A day alone with me? When Hell freezes, you bastard.” Madison pushed out of his embrace and stepped toward an exit. “I’m going to our bedroom, Micah. Feel free—”

Elias’s fingers tangled in her hair, and he wrenched her about. Creases fanned from the corners of his brother’s eyes as his lids lowered to assess her like a new plaything he’d torture with an adoration that bordered on obsession.

“Release her.” The cold edge of Micah’s voice went razor sharp. That command wasn’t optional. However, fighting his brother in his current condition wouldn’t be easy, if not impossible.

“In a moment. I promise not to hurt her, but prove a point.”

His brother’s comment sent Madison into action. She thrust her palm upward, but he deflected the hit. Capturing her shoulders, he twisted her to face Micah. Elias’s arm circled her shoulder, his hand on her throat, holding her head steady against his chest. The tips of his twin’s fingers whitened as he squeezed a warning for Madison to settle down. Beliel saw red, but held his reaction in check. A royal who couldn’t hold her own against another noble would hold no legitimate position in Hell.

Jaw locked tight, she said from between clenched teeth, “I won’t beg you for mercy, Elias.”

“You would.” Of all the brothers, his twin excelled at torture. Madison wouldn’t just beg if he ever took her that way. His brother would milk a duet of screams from her.

“Allow me to prove her insincerity,
zkihtak
?” Micah said nothing and by the brief cant of Elias’s head, he knew his brother took his silence as approval. “Where should I begin, princess? A scratch here….” One of his claws swiped down her shoulder, leaving a cat-like scratch. At the sight of her blood, Micah’s own talons emerged. “Or a prick here?”

A sharp-tip gouged into her upper arm. Blood trickled a zigzag pattern down to her elbow, where it dripped and hit the skin-stitched floor. The souls quarantined to their flesh in Hell shrieked a protest. He would bellow his own objection if this demonstration continued much longer.

Impressed by her ability to retain an impassive expression in light of her tormenter’s taunts, he barely resisted halting his brother’s hypothesis. Power hummed in his ears, gathering in his head to explode in a surge of anger for his sibling’s audacity to harm his wife. When it came to Madison, his reasoning was limited.

No more antagonizing. He would put a stop to this terror tactic. At the first step in his direction, Lucifer placed a halting hand on Micah’s shoulder and telepathed,
Let it play out for a minute longer
.
See what happens, how she reacts
.

Clicking his claws together, he drew his twin’s gaze to them. The half smile that twitched one corner of his brother’s mouth informed Micah his brother understood he tap-danced on the very edge of his restraint. Watching Madison bleed had his protective instincts homicidal for action.

Madison picked that moment to grip Elias’s wrist, wrench it off her throat with a twist. His brother yelped as Madison pivoted on her heels to face him. A kick to his knee and a pop sounded. His twin collapsed on the floor with a yell, and the floor screeched its agony. Her fingernails dug deep into his throat, creating crescent indentions.

“Lay your hands on me again without my consent, and I’ll fucking kill you. If you think for one second I cannot make good on that promise, consider this….” She dragged her nails down the side of his throat, slapped her palm over the scratches, and shoved yellow magic inside him. Pandora magic, by the color of it. Elias jerked and his eyes bulged at the lethal cocktail she’d zapped him with. “Understood?”

Her fiery spirit sexier than ever, Micah’s erection throbbed against his zipper. “Well played, kitten.”

“Screw you!” She heaved his sibling away from her and swung about. Her infuriated glare succeeded in ratcheting up his libido. “You allowed his manhandling.”

“Impressive, princess.” Eliel coughed, wincing as he wiped the blood off his neck, blood her nails had created. He rose to his feet and limped from his wounded knee.

“I allowed it only so far. I had to know if you could handle yourself with him.” And goddamn, what a sight it’d been. Cool in the face of adversity, she’d given no indication she was about to pounce, just reacted and brought his brother down. Must be a low blow to his twin’s colossal pride. “FYI, Elias, Madison ingested my seraph.” His twin’s frame hardened at Micah’s statement. “You know that means she cannot lie to me.”

Lucifer dragged a finger across the flesh wounds inflicted on Madison, and they healed instantly.

She opened her mouth—he guessed the inbred politeness of her Southern upbringing was about to offer thanks—when movement from the corner of the room snagged her attention and she turned in that direction instead.

“Amos!” She blinked rapidly as if she hallucinated.

Their son’s gaze clashed with Madison’s. A fidget between feet and then Amos notched his chin higher, a clear gleam of defiance in his baby blues.

In an attempt to settle her obvious anger, he trailed his fingers across her shoulder, and she dragged in a shaky breath. Before he could issue a reprimand for the way their child looked at his mother, she demanded, “Why. Are. You. Here?”

Micah’s palm slid along the side of her neck. He pinched her chin and tilted her head to the side to peer into her eyes. “He’s been visiting with me. For months. Shortly after Phoenix joined me in Hell.”

Her eyes widened and she jerked out of his hold. “Visiting without my permission.”

Not a question, but a statement. She fisted her hands at her sides, so hard her knuckles went white, an interesting response at cross-purposes with her earlier actions. She’d have him believe she wanted him and was devastated by the thought of killing him, but she would deny him visits with their son. As a father, visitation with his offspring was his privilege.