11. Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Dash
My body was aching, but I was determined to ignore the pain. It reminded me I was still partially human, though some of the moves I’d made on the makeshift battlefield in Hades had me wondering. It was as if my head was on a swivel, and I could see two and three moves ahead. I hoped to fuck it would work the same way when the battle came.
Minor demons had played the part of our enemies. The only part I didn’t cotton onto was having to eat them so they couldn’t regenerate. “Why do we have to do this?” I’d asked Beelz.
“Dude, they come back like rabbits. Just get used to it.” He picked up a small demon, ripped it in half, and downed it like cotton candy. “If you can, drink Lilith’s blood before the fighting begins. You’ll welcome its benefits while you’re in the thick of the battle.”
Easier said than done, but I took every tip the demons gave me because they wouldn’t be there when the time came for the face-off when the goddess of darkness tried to rob me of a happy future.
After brunch, I whisked Keir to our rooms and slid the do-not-disturb sign over the doorknob. I locked the door and began to strip as Keir read something on his phone. I took it from his hands and put it on the nightstand as I pushed him onto the bed and began stripping him too.
“What was it like? Did you learn how to deal with her?”
I wasn’t about to rehash what I’d been doing when all that beautiful pale flesh was in front of me for the taking. “I’ll give you the highlights later. Now, I want to enjoy my husband.”
Keir smirked as we finished unclothing each other down to our boxer briefs. I jerked the comforter and blanket down the bed and climbed on top of him, resting half on his lithe body. “I missed you, Dearly.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “I missed you too. Scotty couldn’t lie to me, and Trent knew it was him when we met in the solarium. I wonder how?”
I didn’t give a fuck. All of that was for another day. “Oh, one last thing,” I said as I slid my palm under the waistband to grip his thick shaft. We both sighed at the contact.
“Tell me now, then put your mouth where your hand is.”
I chuckled. “Lucifer opened Droh. The princes used it as leverage before agreeing to sit out of the fight, and he gave in. Now, we just gotta send her there.”
Keir’s gaze shifted between my eyes. “Did they teach you how to stay alive?”
“Remember, Dearly, we’re tied together. We’ve gotta keep each other alive.”
All talking stopped because sloppy kisses were much more fun. I licked and sucked my way down his beautiful body. I flipped him over and pulled him onto his knees, setting up camp to feast on his sexy ass.
The half-words, moans, and squeaks I was able to wring from his body had me dripping like a leaky faucet. Nibbling on his taint and spearing my tongue into his hole was incredibly fun. My guy was vocal in his pleasure.
“Fuck, Dash.” “Please, yessss!” “Anoth— Oh, god.”
My index and middle fingers stroked his p-spot as I loosened him. When the lube hit me in the forehead, I could tell he was ready to go. I quickly slicked up and flipped him onto his back easily, pulling those gorgeous long legs over my shoulders.
“This won’t be slow and easy, Dearly, but remember how much I love you.”
“I love”—I thrust into him in one move—“you. I love you.”
I winked at him as I pounded his hole. He’d be wrecked when I was done, but we had nowhere else to go that night, and we would soon have a little girl who would demand all our time and attention. I planned to take advantage of every spare second we had before the baby arrived.
The groomsmen made their way to the front of the ballroom, where the wedding would take place. With Lilith unable to attend, Trent had asked me to be his best man and Scotty stepped in to be the sixth groomsman.
The bridesmaids began their long walk down the aisle. Thankfully, they walked pretty fast and in one long row instead of each person taking their time in the spotlight. I was surprised to see all the spirits in attendance.
I leaned into Keir’s ear since he was in front of me. “Do you see all of them?” I tilted my head into the audience, shocked to hell when I saw my brother amongst them.
As I studied the crowd of spirits at the back of the ballroom, I recognizing many of them. “Are they...?”
Keir reached behind him and grabbed my hand. “Where’s the cooler? The one with Lilith’s blood?”
Before I could answer, my breath caught in my lungs. Instead of Amelie walking down the aisle with her father, Nyx entered the ballroom with her brother/husband, Erebus, god of the Underworld.
“We lost our invitation.” She glanced around the massive room, and when she focused on the living, they began dropping like flies.
Scotty and I snapped our fingers simultaneously, and the remaining guests froze. Unfortunately, Nyx didn’t. I panicked because I needed that blood, and for the first time since Lilith had given it, I didn’t have it with me.
Adonis appeared before me with his neck exposed in offering. “Do it now. It won’t be as good as Mother’s, but it’ll help.”
I turned to Keir. “Get behind me now.” My voice was demanding, and he didn’t waste time.
I quickly sunk my fangs into Adon’s jugular, gulping as all hell broke loose right there in the Golden Gate ballroom of the Palace Hotel.
“ Dashiell! ” The room shook as the two huge demons made their way into the crowd, killing guests with a mere glance.
“ Dash! ”
My balled fist connected with something soft, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Keir holding up one of the large bed pillows to shield himself.
I sat up in an instant. “Fuck, are you okay?” I jerked the pillow from his grip and checked his beautiful face hoping there were no marks. Relief rained over me when I didn’t see any.
“You were having a nightmare. Will you tell me what it was about?”
Keir stood from the bed and hustled into the ensuite. I could hear his steady stream, even with the door closed.
“I dreamed that Nyx and Erebus showed up at the wedding. Hell, I hope that doesn’t happen.” That was an understatement.
One thing though... “I want to hide that cooler downstairs somewhere, just to be safe.”
Keir returned from the bathroom with a towel around his waist, so I hurried in to take care of my morning business. After I washed my hands, I splashed water on my face and glanced into the mirror.
There were some ugly bags under my eyes that wouldn’t look good in pictures, but I knew who could fix them. I walked out of the bathroom in all my naked glory to see Keir on the room phone.
He held up his finger. “A large carafe of coffee, two glasses of orange juice—” He put his hand over the receiver. “Pancakes, waffles, or French toast?”
“Waffles, please.” Keir nodded and finished ordering.
I sat down on the side of the bed, calling Vale. “Hey, Dash. What can I do for you?” Jonas answered. He’d waited in Limbo while I was working with Jay, Beelzebub, and the demons in Hades. He’d jabbered the whole way to San Fran about how pissed Vale would be for him disappearing without an explanation. Jay and I laughed our asses off.
“Ask your fiancé what to do about bags under my eyes. Have you heard from anyone in the Celestial Realm regarding where Jo and Lilith are?”
“Not a word. Hang on.”
“Hey, Dash. What’s wrong?” Vale asked.
“Bags under my eyes. What do I do about that?”
The longer we didn’t hear from Jo or Lilith, the more worried I became. Was Lake okay? Was Jamie scared? I missed them deeply and couldn’t wait for them to return to us.
“Come to the adjoining door.”
The phone went dead, so I stood and walked to the door.
“Put something on!” Keir was wearing lounge pants and a T-shirt. I was still in my birthday suit.
A pillow hit me on the back, so I picked it up and held it in front of me as Vale opened the door. He was wearing a gorgeous peacock-blue silk robe. He twisted open a jar and put a smear of something under each eye. “Rub that in and lie down with a cool cloth over your eyes for fifteen minutes. Nice ass.”
He closed the door on his side, and when I turned around, I saw the mirror provided a perfect reflection of my sexy-as-fuck ass. Keir and I started laughing. “You should have paid attention to his face.” I was more interested in the look on my husband’s face.
Three hours later, we were dressed in our monkey suits and standing in the ballroom for the groomsmen’s pictures. I’d hid the cooler in a storage closet in the hallway, making sure to show Adonis and Jonas where it was in the event of an emergency. My dream from earlier had me shook.
We were in the middle of posing with Trent when his deceased grandmother came into the room and walked over to Keir. She whispered something, and Keir smiled brightly. “Thank you, Mrs. Simmons.”
Keir stepped closer and took my hand before he turned to our friend. “Trent, will you excuse us for a moment?”
The photographer set up a pose with Trent and the ring bearer, who was the son of a regular customer at The Mystical Palm, as Keir pulled me out into the hall.
“Mrs. Simmons had said we had a visitor.” We were stunned when we saw Lake and Jamie in the sitting area outside the ballroom.
“Oh, my gosh!” Keir hurried to the young girl and scooped her into his arms as I walked over to Lake and hugged her.
“We were hoping to surprise you guys. How are you?” Lake stood and walked over to me first.
“How did you get here?” Keir asked Lake.
“We drove. We’ve been in San Francisco since we left Monterey. Your mother and Lenny were so nice to let us stay with them. Did they arrest your stalker yet?”
Keir glanced at me. How do I answer that?
I smirked. “Uh, no. But they’re closing in. They say they’ll get him any minute now.” It was a lie, but I was already a product of hell. What did I have to lose?
“Oh! Someone wants to say hello to their daddies.” Lake grabbed my hand and held it on her baby bump. There, against my palm, I felt a nudge and then a kick. I jerked my hand away in surprise as I dragged Keir over and put his hand there.
He started laughing as tears rolled down his cheeks, which sparked mine, and then Lake’s followed. Sweet Jamie patted us on our backs.
For a few minutes, Keir and I stood in front of Lake with our hands on her belly, feeling our precious angel move inside the wonderful woman carrying her until our daughter was ready to make her debut. I was humbled by the miracle I was witnessing and couldn’t wait for the day Grace would be born.