Her Dragon, His Demon (The Dragon Guard #12)

Chapter 1

“Hello, my sweet, and how was your day?”

Just the sound of his voice made Audrey want to rip her ears off her head and stomp them into the soot covered rocks to avoid ever hearing him again.

It made her skin crawl and her stomach roll.

It sounded like rocks in a blender, nails on a chalkboard, and a cat’s screech, all at the same time.

If there was a more horrible sound in all of hell, Audrey hadn’t heard it in her hundred years of servitude.

Of course, it fit the large, grotesque figure who’d been her Master since her uncle’s bitter betrayal.

The Demon Lord stood over seven-feet tall—not counting his hideous tail—and was covered from the top of his reptilian-shaped head to the tip of his six-inch claw-studded toes with deep green, iridescent scales.

His vertical, elliptically shaped pupils were eerily highlighted by his fluorescent yellow irises and gave Audrey the feeling that he was looking through her instead of at her.

The large horns growing from the sides of his forehead and curving over his scaly head were a sign of his high rank in the realms of hell but did nothing except serve as a reminder to the princess that he was an evil beast of the first order.

Audrey had seen firsthand that the claws decorating both his hands and feet could inject horrifically pain-causing venom into his prey.

She’d been made to stand idly by and watch Adramelech’s underlings writhe in pain while screeching so loudly her ears bled as he punished them for their disobedience and failure with a mere prick of his talons.

It was one of the many ways the Chancellor thought to keep Audrey docile, but he was always infuriated when it failed.

She felt bad for those who’d suffered but found a bit of solace in the fact that he’d never subjected her to the mind-numbing agony.

Audrey wasn’t silly enough to think it was because the Chancellor cared.

Oh, no. It was because just like she, he knew his toxins would kill her instantly.

For although a demon squatted inside her very soul, the malignant spirit Adramelech himself had placed there the day he’d brought her to the very depths of hell and used as another form of torture to keep her off balance, Audrey was still very much human.

She enjoyed all the frailties and inadequacies that came along with the lovely beat of her heart.

It was her greatest blessing and worst curse all rolled into one messed up package.

At the sound of Adramelech clearing his throat, Audrey let out an exasperated breath while pretending to be busy at the fireplace.

“It was the same as the one before and the one before that and…” Turning on her heels, she looked the Chancellor and President of the High Council of Demons in the eye and spat, “The one before that. Get the gist?” She threw her arms wide open and spun in a circle.

“I’m your prisoner, have been for one helluva long time, so you know damned good and well that I’ve been right here doing absolutely nothing but waiting for you to arrive, my lord. ”

She soaked her last two words in as much sarcasm as possible and gave a quick curtsey for added effect.

Baiting the bastard was Audrey’s only form of entertainment, even though she knew it was dangerous to her health.

She could see the Demon Lord working hard to control his temper and stopped for a beat to wonder why.

Any other time, Adramelech would’ve simply whipped his spiky, six-foot tail out from under his black, floor-length, soot-covered robe and slashed her across the back a few times for her insolence.

She had the scars of a century to prove he was not above corporal punishment.

But tonight, he was being unusually pleasant and reining in his murderous temper, which was never a good sign.

Taking a step back just in case he decided to attack, Audrey had to figure she was lucky that Adramelech was always careful to avoid her face.

After all, he reminded her every chance he got that it was her only redeeming quality.

Her beauty, something she never thought she had but the demon coveted, was what had drawn him to her.

Well, that and her father’s kingdom, and the fact that the bastard knew she was the mate of a Dragon Guardsman long before she ever did.

For all the things the Chancellor despised about Audrey—and the list was long and detailed—he hated her humanity the most; even though he and he alone possessed the ability to take it away.

One slash of the barbed tip of his tail across the tender skin of her throat and the evil spirit he’d placed within her would take over.

It was sad how easily he could take her life, but it was a reality she’d accepted long ago.

Audrey had to figure he loved to hate her.

It was the only thing that made sense. The list of things he bitched about was endless.

He loathed her iron will. Reviled her willingness to take a beating instead of bow before him.

Had more than once told her how much he detested the very air she breathed.

Her Demon Master had gone so far as to wrap his long, scaly fingers around her throat until she’d almost pass out then let go and laugh as she fell into a heap on the ground, gasping for air.

In those days, she’d prayed for death and had actually tried suicide on a few occasions—but it never worked.

The black magic Adramelech surrounded her with to prevent her from harming herself always stopped her.

The slimy feel of the evil spell had flared to life and had been sliding across her skin every minute of every day since then.

Looking over Adramelech’s shoulder, Audrey saw her reflection in the mirror and shook her head.

If she had a nickel for every time she’d prayed to get old and haggard with the hopes that the Chancellor would finally tire of her as he had all the others over the years, she’d be a damned millionaire.

Sure, he would kill her and that would stink, but there would be peace in death.

Not that it mattered because her prayers went unanswered; her looks never changed.

She blamed her gypsy heritage but was sure the Chancellor had a hand in her eternal youth as well.

To say enough was enough was an understatement.

Audrey was ready to try anything to escape her prison—even death, but. ..

That would mean she would never see Rian O’Reilly again, and if the stories were true, she would be dooming him to a solitary existence without love.

It was unthinkable to imagine the handsome Dragon Guardsman, whom she’d met the night of her first birthday in hell, dying of a broken heart.

Audrey was immediately enraged when she remembered how Adramelech had tried to use her as bait to capture said dragon shifter and doom him to the Underworld.

She had no idea why the Chancellor wanted her mate, only knew that he did and that she’d paid dearly with her flesh and blood for not luring Rian into the Demon Lord’s trap.

Year after year, Adramelech trapped shifters of all shapes, sizes, and varieties…

but never a dragon. No sooner did the two-natured creatures appear than the Chancellor would have one of his many minions whisk the poor soul away to parts unknown.

Audrey would listen to hour after hour, day after day of their anguished cries, both human and animal, begging to be put out of the misery inflicted upon them.

Finally, when their pleas were little more than whispers, their wish would be granted.

Adramelech would absorb their soul and have another of his minions feed the body to the hellhounds.

Several long years into her servitude, it all seemed so sad and pointless and drove Audrey to take a huge risk to find out what the Demon Lord was truly after.

Creeping silently out of the cave she was forced to call home, Audrey followed the horrible sounds of torture that bounced off the stone walls of one of the smaller dungeons and listened to Adramelech ask the same question over and over of his prisoner, “Where is the lair of the dragons?”

For weeks after that, she’d searched every nook and cranny of the Chancellor’s cave when he went to judge and punish the unfortunate beings brought before his court.

She looked for any clue as to what he wanted with the dragons…

with her mate. Every day she came up empty handed.

Every day she went to sleep praying that the next day would be the day she found something that would stop Adramelech’s single-minded extinction of shifters of all species in an effort to trap an elusive dragon shifter.

Almost a year later, while Audrey was recuperating from an especially heinous beating for calling the Demon Lord a toad, Adramelech took her to his library.

She figured in his own messed up way, the Chancellor felt bad for almost killing her and thought letting her out of their region of hell would make up for the slashes decorating her back and buttocks.

Audrey would’ve rather died but since that wasn’t an option, she’d followed him like the dog he thought she was.

Several days into her vacation as the asshole had offhandedly called it, Audrey found a piece of dried human skin, also known as paper in hell, covered with what she immediately recognized as Gaelic written in human blood (hell’s ink).

Her grandfather had spoken the old language and thankfully had shared his knowledge with his favorite granddaughter.