Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) (4 page)

Elias smirked. “You weren’t just his coup, Madison. His idea, yes, but all of us had a hand in your creation.” He jabbed his chest with a finger. “I helped keep your pretty ass safe. A lot.”

Fingers clenching Micah’s arm, she tried to digest the implications of what his twin hinted.

Treating her like a child, he tapped her nose with his fingertip. “Micah kept you grounded and you crushed on him from the moment your childish eyes gazed upon him. How many times did she fall asleep curled up in your arms,
zkihtak
?”

“Often, the first five years of her life.”

“How, when Daddy disliked you so much?” She slanted her head to take a peek at Micah.

“Erased his memory of those times.” He kissed the side of her head. “He believed we were Celeste’s brothers for many years. We wiped that memory when I came back into your life at fifteen.”

“I was Uncle Eli.” Elias drew her attention back to him. “Micah nourished and coddled you, and I taught you how to be a good succubus. Celeste thought you were misbehaving when you were enthralling people. Neither she nor Micah knew I was behind several of those incidents, encouraging you, teaching you how to navigate your power. That’s probably why your demon feels innate to you now.”

“Why would you do all that?” The idea of him having taught her anything, especially as a child, turned her stomach queasy.

“Because you needed to be strong to survive. And because you are important to Hell. But….” His fingers pinched into her chin again. “I protected you for the good of Hell. I don’t love you. I don’t even like you. Yet.” He released his hold on her. “Prove to me you’re worthy of your station, and I’ll be as loyal to you as I am my brothers.”

“Usha.”

“That’s your demonic name?” Micah rolled the name along his tongue. “Usha means dawn and you represent the dawn of a new age, a new creation…and a new Hell.”

“It doesn’t end in -
el
like ours.” Raguel made that observation.

“She’s not angel-born.” Elias stared at her and she couldn’t get a read on his thoughts. Never a good sign.

“Hell-spawned is so much better, don’t you think, kitten?” Micah rubbed his cheek against her hair.

“You’ll hear no objections from me.” Less than twenty-four hours ago, she’d have objected with vehemence.

He turned her to face him and cupped her cheeks, taking special care not to harm her with his angelic talons. “You’ll anchor yourself to Hell willingly?”

Dazed by her brother-in-law’s confession and her husband’s appeal, Madison nodded. “Yes.”

“You’ll return for Amos and bring him home?”

“Of course.” No hesitation. Nix would be so disappointed in her.

“Home as in Hell?”

“Yes.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Don’t believe me, Micah?”

“I would, if not for the pain in your eyes. I cannot trust the bond of my seraph inside you to be working properly.” She assumed he referred to her inability to lie after consuming his seraph. Wasn’t that what he’d said in Hell and what Lucifer hinted at earlier? “Blood-covenant with me and I will believe you unconditionally. After you fulfill this vow, our trust issues will be permanently resolved.”

She pulled his hand away from her face and dragged his claw across the top of her breast. A fine bead of red liquid bubbled to her skin. “I covenant with you to bring our son home to Hell after I’m anchored to Hell. If we have an agreement, we can seal the deal.”

Micah scratched his talon down his neck. She latched onto his throat like a starving vampire. When she pulled back, he bent his head slowly, scraped his fangs along the slash on her breast, coating his teeth in her blood. She wrapped her fingers in his hair and tugged him closer. He slid his tongue along the wound and she shivered in his arms, the physical manifestation of their covenant sizzling into her skin.

His teeth trailed across her collarbone, prickling her flesh as they shadowed up her neck. He put his lips against her ear. The erotic kiss of his breath washed her in immediate arousal. “One intimate taste and I’m prepared to burn the world to cinders to protect you.”

Madison caught her breath, certain the fierce strike of lust his words evoked would burn
her
to cinders.

Chapter Two

Amos came out of Hell into his bedroom. He bolted at a dead run down the hall to Momma and Nix’s room, screaming
Zen
in his head the entire way there. Not stopping to knock, he threw open the door and slammed into his protector. The immortal’s hands settled on his shoulders and steadied his footing.

“Momma!” he screamed. Terror rose into his throat and threatened to suffocate him. While in Hell, he’d seen the look on Momma’s face, got a glimpse into her heart, and she wouldn’t be coming back if he didn’t do something. Immediately! And he had no idea how to remove her from Hell. “Nix…Zen, Daddy’s got Momma!”

The premonition he’d had on the heels of realizing Daddy had her wouldn’t let up. Like a nuclear bomb dropped in the heartland of America, everything about their lives would be altered. The foundation for a new future was being laid at an alarming pace. Unless he could snatch her out of Hell, somehow.

Nix bolted off the bed in a flurry of covers and curses. And naked. Amos frowned and turned away from the view.

“We’ll meet you in the study once you’re decent, Phoenix.” Zen hadn’t even looked at Nix, so how’d he know? His immortal friend’s fingers clamped on his neck and tugged him into the hallway. “Start talking.”

“I was asleep. FiFi and Devlin curled up beside me. FiFi was dreaming about—”

“Go forward, Amos.”

“Huh?” He made a face at Zen, not understanding what he wanted.

“He means fast-forward to the important parts. We don’t give a damn what the Hellhounds were dreaming.” He whipped around at the sound of Nix’s voice. He stalked to them, anger and fear gouging his forehead. His fists curled tight at his sides. Faded jeans were zipped, but not buttoned, and he hadn’t bothered with a shirt. His tattoo sleeve was an odd mixture of protective totems that blended to create one unified emblem.

Hope flared like new magic on his fingertips. He
knew
how to get Momma back.

“You got Momma’s sigil tattooed on you?”

“Yeah.” He elevated his right arm. Inked on the underside of his bicep was Momma’s demonic symbol and name. “When she’d tell you?”

“She didn’t. I just saw it in my head. I got this.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out the bloodstone she’d infused with a piece of her magic. It helped keep him grounded when he practiced his skill. “Momma committed to you somehow, yeah?”

Nix shot a speculative glance at Zen.

“I know about sex. I know you and Momma had it. Geez…adults are so weird.”

Nix cleared his throat. “Yes,” he began slowly. “She…uh…made a commitment.”

“Follow me.” Amos ran back into their bedroom as he yelled to the men. “If you don’t do exactly what I say when I say, that commitment will be lost.”

Might be anyway. The alternate future unraveled faster than he could keep up with it.

Nix chased after Amos. No need to contemplate whether to trust the kid.

Zen cheated by teleporting into the room ahead of them. “Tell me what you need.”

“We need Angel and Demon Locks placed around the outside of the house. But don’t finish the Demon Lock until Momma is back.”

“I’ll get the dragons on it.” Zen didn’t wait for instructions, but teleported out of the bedroom. That teleporting stuff was convenient. Too bad it wasn’t one of his own tricks. And he wasn’t too keen on those dragons, either. Kur and Cael might be devoted to Mads, but that was only the case because she wore a magical scroll that bound them to her.

“Nix.” The child turned toward him as bursts of flaming ice lit up the landscape through the window; the dragons doing their jobs on the Locks he presumed. “I need your blood on this.” He held up his hand and a rock sat in the middle of his palm. The hum of Mads’s magic was inscribed in the bloodstone’s structure.

After whipping his knife out of his jeans pocket, he jabbed his thumb with the tip. Blood beaded and he smeared it across the stone.

“Now me.” Amos held up his thumb and Nix didn’t hesitate to prick him. The boy doused the stone with the reddish-black substance of his life. “Focus on Momma,” he instructed.

“No problem.”

Zen teleported back in with Kur by his side. Kur shook his hair out of his face. “Angel Lock completed on the outside. Cael is on standby to ice the remainder of the Demon Lock into the soil.”

He had no idea what ‘ice’ meant in this case. So long as they executed Amos’s instructions precisely, he didn’t particularly care. Getting Mads back was his primary focus. He’d have a ton of questions afterward. Like how did Amos know Micah had Mads when he hadn’t even realized she’d departed their bed? How had the motherfucker snatched her from beneath his nose? How had he survived the dragon blade to his heart?

So far, Nix was doing a sucky job of protecting his woman.

“Put your hand over mine.”

Nix complied, covering the stone with his palm.

The boy spoke words so low he couldn’t catch their meaning, but he felt the soft build of magic. At first a small bubble pulsed between their joined hands, coalesced bigger to engulf their palms in a heat so hot it burned, but left no visible evidence. He would endure a second death to retrieve her from her husband.

A hot blaze whooshed suddenly about them, encompassing their body. He stared at Amos, watched his eyes flare from light pink and straight into flames like Micah’s. Just as they’d been when he met the child and he’d been acting out like a demonic adolescent.

“
Taqq ej pela hi yippulx. Pe pihtak feqq za xaqegakax hi pa lif
!”
Hell is mine to command. My mother will be delivered to me now
!

Xapil. He spoke it like he’d been brought up with the language. Nix hoped the spell worked.

“
Taqq yullih xale pe xapulx
.”
Hell cannot deny my demand
.

An uneasy cramp settled between his shoulder blades. Mads wouldn’t appreciate this type of interference from her son. It exposed him too much to his father. Could Micah lock on Amos during the spell and tug him to Hell, too? Nix couldn’t take that chance. He opened his mouth to shut everything down when Mads slammed into the room, stumbled, and caught herself on the four-poster bed.

Arm wrapped around the bedpost for support, she kept her face turned toward the floor, but lifted her gaze to peruse the occupants as if acclimating herself to her new surroundings. Her eyes blazed with her Lynx. “Demon Lock me immediately!”

The strain in her voice had him moving toward her.

“Demon Lock confirmed in place.” The dragon crossed his arms over his chest.

Mads flung one arm up and clung to the support with the other. “Stop! No closer, Nix.” She lifted her head and swiped her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve been with him. I’ve got all of the Kings in me.”

What the fuck did that mean?

“I’ll drain you before I can stop myself,” she whispered, trembling visibly.

Nix ignored the warning and snatched her into his arms. A locomotive couldn’t have hindered his embrace, nothing except maybe Hell and her fucking husband. Before he could offer a small trickle of his messian, her demon struck and consumed it faster than a human could take fluids from an I.V. at full release.

She ingested too much for him to process, and he did nothing to stop her. His teeth ached. His eyesight blurred until he hallucinated a golden glow around her. At least he thought it was a figment of his imagination. Even his hearing began to buzz. His limbs grew weak and he shook. He continued to allow her to imbibe.

She warned she’d drain me before I could stop her
.

He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes.

She can have it all. Anything for Mads
.

Chapter Three

Madison’s world escalated into perfection. No worries existed while her Lynx feasted on the most magnificent golden magic. Purity. But trimmed in an edge of darkness. Chocolate and liquor, sweet and intoxicating, but without the calories.

And she wanted
all of it
.

There was a reason she shouldn’t ingest every single drop, but she couldn’t remember why. Couldn’t make herself pull back, either.

Suddenly, her consumption ended. She blinked. Zen teleported across the room with a wan Nix at his side. Why’d he look so sickly? Had he been ill? She couldn’t remember. Not a good sign. Struggling to recall what she was missing, she licked her lips and stared at the dragon that stepped in front of her. “Kur?”

“Keep Phoenix away from us. He won’t like what he sees.” The dragon cupped her chin. “You hungry, Madison?”

She said nothing, just stared into his sapphire eyes as she breathed deep, tasting his magic—a unique blend of fertile mountain soil, icecaps, and ashes—through her senses. Madison circled him. Nice build, good ass, hair long enough to tangle her fingers in as she dined on his power.

One moment she was standing. The next, he grabbed her arms and tossed her on the bed. She laughed as he straddled her waist and pinned her wrists to the mattress. “You cannot dominate me, dragon.”

“Take what you want.” That surprised her. No one should ever freely offer himself to a starved Lynx. “Take what you need.”

Madison flipped him on his back and rose over him, smiling as she scored her nails from his wrists to the insides of his elbows. He didn’t react, just lay passive beneath her, his hooded eyes studying her. Blood oozed from the scratches she’d created. She leaned forward and licked the fluid away as she clamped her other hand over his wound and chugged his magic. This mojo—the color of choppy ocean seas—wasn’t as good as the golden power. But she wouldn’t turn it down, either.

Euphoria swept through her, and she threw her head back, squeezed her thighs to hold down the man beneath her. He didn’t struggle as she’d suspected he would. As he should. He did not even issue a grunt of protest.