Read bedeviled & beyond 01 - bedeviled & beguiled for Free Online

defilement. He and his entire court must die.”
    I know I should have kept my mouth shut but by now you’re probably beginning to understand how hard that is for me. “So what’s the problem with your court? It seems Nerul has won all the battles?”
    Dialle glanced at me, but he didn’t seem as pissed off as I’d expected. He actually looked thoughtful.
    “Do not assume that we have not taken our share of souls, little halfling. Nerul has lost half of his court to us over the last two hundred years alone. That is why he has taken our queen.”
    “Why now? What set him off recently?”
    Dialle laughed. “Very perceptive, pretty halfling. I guess you could say that we struck him where he would be harmed most. We have his oldest son under our control.”
    I couldn’t help myself. I laughed out loud. “Well, duhhh! Did you think he would just sit back and say, ‘Oh well, I guess I’ll have to make another one’?”
    Dialle’s black eyes fixed on my face and I could have sworn I saw a tongue of flame in each one. But he looked away quickly, as the she-devil stood. “That is enough, Dialle. She is obviously too course and stupid to serve as intermediary between the courts. As you said, Nerul will dispense with her as soon as she opens her mouth. I will kill her and we will do it my way after all.”
    Dialle nodded. “Yes, I guess that would be best.”
    I couldn’t help it. I was a little surprised, I thought we had that physical attraction thing going. Even if it was all on his side.
    Uh huh.
    The she-devil raised her arms and I steeled myself, stiffening my legs for the attack. I clasped the cross in my right hand and wrapped my other hand around the belt of crosses. If I was going down I would take a few of them with me.
    Turns out I didn’t need to show how tough I was just yet. Dialle reached out a hand and touched her arm just as I felt the first signs of weakness in my traitorous limbs.
    “What about the King?”
    She lowered her arms a notch but didn’t take her riveting black eyes from me. Shrugging she said, “What of him? He refuses to help us, even for his Queen.”
    “Yes, he does appear disinterested. But is he?” Dialle’s voice was a warm caress that made both of us squirm a little. She squirmed less than me, dammit. “I wouldn’t want his wrath to touch you, my love.”
    At last she turned her face to him and met his velvety black gaze with deep, midnight pools of her own. Her body melted toward his, her arms encircling his long, hard body. I found myself licking my own lips as their bodies merged into a seemingly undivided column of gorgeous devilry.
    Where their bodies met, sparks snapped and spat and shot away from them in streams of pulsing light. The angels pulled away in fear, straining against the bonds that held them captive to their devils, while every devil in the room moved toward the sparks as if they were being pulled by an invisible thread to join in the mating. The court at the table all stood and moved to encircle the couple, reaching their hands toward the sparks, reveling in their sting. A low murmur of excitement filled the room and began to grow until it became a chant.
    I wasn’t sure what was going on but I thought this might be a good time to make my exit. As my mind formed the thought the voice in my head said, Go. I will contact you later .
    Although it pissed me off that he kept jumping into my head, I wasn’t as stupid as they believed me to be and I decided to get the Hades out of there.
    As I backed quickly toward the door, my eyes scanning the room to make sure no one noticed, I rammed into something very solid and immediately felt claws digging into my arm. I turned to look into a set of unintelligent black eyes. Unfortunately for me, the stupid looking eyes lived in a very ugly head with long, saliva coated fangs and the ugly head topped off a very squat, nearly purple red body. I realized immediately that I was not dealing with great intelligence and