Kiss of a Demon King

snatched up her clothes. Leaving the illusion on the bed, she kept herself cloaked in invisibility and slipped from the room.

She heard Rydstrom walking the house and eluded him to find her way out of a back door. As she hurried

off the property into the night, she hastily dragged on

her top and skirt.

The demon would follow as soon as he discovered her missing-she could only hope to make it to Lanthe's portal before then.

'Lanthe?'

'Sabine, just follow my voice. I'm in a park somewhere.'

The streets all looked the same, like a labyrinth. Rain began to fall, lightly at first, then intensifying. Soon, lightning fractured the skies. Thunder quaked. As though poured from a bucket, rain pounded down.

'Lanthe?'

'I'm here. This weather blows.'

Sabine caught sight of a park in the distance. 'Talk to me.'

'You're close.'

'I can see a-' Sabine stumbled when she heard the demon roar her name, the sound echoing like a can­non's boom.

He'd started the chase. And he sounded enraged.

'Lanthe, he's coming for me!' No answer. 'Lanthe?Where are you?'

When she answered, her voice was fainter. 'Kind of had to make a detour.'

'You're getting farther away from me? What are you doing?'

Her voice was a scarce whisper. 'Right now I'm running from winged monsters. You?'

'Fleeing a seven-foot-tall rage demon. ...'

38

 When Rydstrom had gone to check on her again, he'd reached down to brush her hair.

And found nothing but illusion. He'd stared for long moments, disbelieving.

She tricked me. She'd obviously never intended to stay. Another lie. She'd . .. deserted him.

Why! He'd charged from the house into a storm, bel­lowing her name. Where in the hell is she? He caught her scent from what must be miles away.

He tore off after her, tracking her, following his instinct. He sprinted down sodden streets, rage over­ whelming him with every step. The frenzied need to mark her consumed him.

She doesn't carry my mark . . . we're not wed.

He caught sight of her nearing a small park, darting through puddles. He squinted through the rain. In the distance, he saw an area of diffused air-a portal. And she was heading directly for it.

Can't lose her. He pumped his arms for speed until he was on her heels, then lunged for her. Seizing her by the hips, he took her down into the muddy grass.

'You told me you wanted to stay with me!' With his breaths heaving, he tossed her to her back. 'You made me believe you. And you were running back to Omortl'

'No . . . yes . . . Rydstrom, you must listen!' She blinked up at him, the pouring rain hitting her face.

He hauled her beneath him, digging his claws into her thighs. 'Why? Every word out of your mouth is a lie! How many times will I let you deceive me?'

She'd thought to escape him? The lying sorceress would pay.

His eyes glowed in the night, cruel obsidian. Rain poured down painfully-never had Sabine felt it like this. The drops pelted her eyes so hard, she could barely see, could scarcely hear herself.

'I'd planned to be good to you,' he grated. 'To make love to you. But no longer.'

When he began unbuckling his belt, her eyes went wide. 'Not like this!' she cried, raking her nails over his face and chest.

He roared with fury, then seized her wrists, fettering them behind her back with his belt.

'Rydstrom, no! Something has happened! Demon, listen to me. My sister's here-'

'Your sister's not here, she's in Tornin! In my castle! My home!' His horns were dark and flaring. 'I don't want to hear any more of your lies!'

'Please, Lanthe's in danger. . . .' Her words tangled on her tongue as she tried to explain to him, while lis­ tening for Lanthe's voice or the sound of wings. 'And the Vrekeners are everywhere!'

Rydstrom finished her binding and flipped her hack over to face him. He isn't hearing me. 'I have to go to her!' she said, trying again, but there was no talking to him, no reasoning. I broke him. The demon who had been so rational, so reasonable. 'If anything happens to her.' Her heart was about to explode with fear for Lanthe. That fear turned to nausea, then fury. 'You have no right to keep me,' she cried. 'No right to attack me, tackling me into the mud!'

'You lied-you'll pay for it.'

'Get off of me, you animal! You have to release me, now!'

'Never, Sabine, Never.' He snatched her up into his arms then over his shoulder, storming back to his home.

'No!' she screamed as he forced her away from the portal, away from Lanthe. 'Don't take me back.' Though the rain was easing, she still couldn't hear her sister.

'I'll keep her any way I have to,' Rydstrom muttered to himself. 'Chained to the bed if I have to. The demon in me will be satisfied this eve....'

She gazed back over his arm, shuddering. Where was her sister? Sabine had to get back to her, had to escape Rydstrom.

When the gale ended, she attempted once more to tell him about Lanthe. But it was like talking to a wall. He wouldn't listen, not even when they returned to the

house, not even when he stripped her. Not even when he stalked outside and found chains to trap her body to his bed.

One way to deal with a woman like her.

Rydstrom heard little of what she was saying. He didn't need to hear any more of her lies. Just need to mark her.

She lay on the bed with her damp red hair in a fall all around her head, her pale body spread and trembling. He shoved his pants off, then climbed over her.

Her eyes went wide. 'You've got to let me go!' she cried. 'I have to get back.'

Do nothing irrevocable. . . . But he had to, because she wouldn't stay anyway. Mark her.

He knelt between her legs. 'I was going to take you slow.' When he lay over her, he clasped the sides of her face. His cock pulsed against her hot sex.

Get control. She makes me crazed! Got me so twisted inside. . . .

'Don't do this to me, demon!' She gazed up at him with beseeching eyes.

'You told me you would stay. I believed you.'

'Rydstrom, I have to help Lanthe, my sister. If I don't get back, they'll kill her. Trust me to return to you, and I will.'

'Did you think it would have ended between us when you went back to Omort? I'd come for you.' As he ground his shaft against her, he said at her ear, 'Cwena, if we are apart, it's only because I'm not done fighting my way to you.'