Knight's Redemption (Knights of Hell Book 1) Page 6

  The three of them stepped out of the elevator. “What is all this?” She turned toward the silent male beside her.

  “Our main control area. Besides security for the compound, we also have a visual link to most of Roxburgh and the surrounding areas.”

  “Why do you need cameras?” He’d told her how his kind tracked the demi-demons they saved. He’d called it a sort of built-in alarm. All this seemed…well, she didn’t know what to make of any of it.

  “Bringing in demi isn’t all we do.” He motioned to the cameras. “Sometimes we need modern technology like everyone else.”

  That cryptic answer told her nothing, but Lazarus seemed tense and she got the feeling it wasn’t the time to push for more.

  “Are there other demi-demons here like me?”

  “The second and third floors house our demi. First, we have a training area, gym. Above the control room there is a common area and cafeteria of sorts for those who wish to socialize. The fourth floor is apartments, mine and my brothers.” He turned to her then, finally looking at her again. “You can find me there if you need me.”

  His voice had deepened when he said the last, and the gravel in it had her shivering again.

  She nodded, unable to make her mouth work all of a sudden.

  That intense gaze moved over her. “Are you cold again?”

  Eve swallowed and forced herself to answer. “No, I’m not cold.”

  His head tilted to the side in that animalistic way, gaze boring into hers, and whatever he saw caused it to darken.

  She quickly looked away. The fierceness she saw there made her heart race and her head swim in way she did not get.

  “Your room,” he said suddenly. “I’ll get someone to show you to your room.”

  Lazarus led Eve out of the control room, trying to keep his reaction to that little shiver, the way she’d been looking at him, on the down low. Maybe what he’d been feeling wasn’t totally one-sided? Maybe not. Whatever that was, no way she’d understand it, and no way would he take advantage of it.

  No matter how much of a game changer it would be in the war with Tobias. Mating her when she was confused and without all the facts wasn’t something he was comfortable with. Not one fucking bit.

  He ignored the throb of his groin and steered her out into the hall, more than a little pleased that all his brothers hadn’t been there for a meet and greet when they arrived. They were intimidating individually; confronted with more than one of them at a time would have freaked Eve out.

  And, shit, if Chaos had seen that little shiver, the way Eve had looked at Lazarus, the prick would have locked them in a room together, mated by morning, and have Lazarus out hunting Tobias by nightfall.

  The sound of boots hitting the stairs as they approached them echoed up the stairwell, and he gritted his teeth, sensing his brother before the doors opened. Thankfully, it was Kryos and not Zenon. With his angelic blond curls, warm brown eyes, and handsome face, Kryos was by far the least threatening of them all, at least in looks. Being mated helped. Not only did mating mean he had control of his demon, he at least knew how to talk to a woman without scaring the hell out of her.

  He smiled. “Laz.” His gaze slid to Eve. “And this is?”

  “Eve,” Lazarus said.

  Kryos’s smile turned to a grin and he held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.” His gaze slid back to Laz. “I hope my surly bro here is making you feel welcome.”

  Eve chuckled.

  Laz scowled at the bastard. “Is Meredith around? I thought she might she show Eve around.” His brother’s mate would do a better job at making Eve feel welcome than he could.

  Kryos frowned a little. “I thought you might…”

  “Can she or not?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll get her to meet Eve downstairs in a few.” Kryos met his gaze. “Have you told her everything she needs to know…about how we do things here?”

  Laz stared back, not missing what his brother was asking. “No, there’s time for that. I think she’s had enough information for one day.”

  Kryos dipped his chin. Message received.

  At least he’d keep his trap shut. And as soon as Eve was safe in her room, he’d be sending out a mass text to the others to keep their mouths shut as well. He needed to do this his own way, and he sure as hell didn’t need a reminder that time wasn’t something he had a lot of.

  Kryos left to get his mate, and Lazarus led Eve to the stairs.

  An hour later, Eve was in her room, Meredith still with her, and Laz was in his apartment, wearing out a strip in his carpet. What the hell did he do now? What was the best way to approach this: take her somewhere, like a date? Try and win her over?

  Christ.

  He clenched his fists. Winning her over wasn’t the goal here. He didn’t want to trick her into this, make her believe they were something that we weren’t. Make her think he could give her something he knew he never could. Honesty was his only option. He needed to just lay that shit out and hope for the best.

  “Hey, Eve, you’re my mate. That means you’ll be tied to me for eternity, but I don’t actually want you for more than one night. So yeah, wanna come back to my room and fuck?”

  Who wouldn’t fall at someone’s feet after that declaration?

  The knock at his door was not unexpected. The only surprise was it hadn’t come sooner.

  He yanked the door open and Chaos, their unofficial leader, walked through and prowled across the room.

  Chaos stopped in front of Lazarus. “Does she know?”

  “Not yet.”

  “So you’re not mated?”

  Lazarus stiffened and barely resisted the urge to decorate the guy’s face with a matching pair of black eyes. “Can I have more than a goddamned day? I’d like Eve to get used to me before I fucking jump her.”

  The persistent hum he’d woken up with vibrating in the back of his skull, plus the uncontrollable craving for the female now in this building, made him aware of how naive he’d been.

  He thought he could take her, make her his mate, then leave. He realized now it wouldn’t be that easy, not any of it. His life was not his own. The greater good, it was always the greater good. He’d been created to fight, to protect mankind. His feelings never came into it. It had always been that way.

  Which meant he hadn’t even factored Eve’s own feelings into any of this, how this fucking nightmare would affect her.

  How could he have been so damned ignorant?

  Chaos visibly tensed. “We don’t have time to fuck around, and until you finish this, we’re all at risk. Diemos and his brethren are just waiting for their chance.”

  By finishing this, Chaos meant making Eve his mate. His brother was even blinder than Lazarus when it came to duty. The male was made of stone.

  As for Diemos—the most powerful male in Hell—Lazarus would do whatever was necessary to keep his brothers away from that sadistic bastard. The guy had once been Lucifer’s most trusted confidant, his right-hand demon, his favorite. Until Diemos betrayed him and cast Lucifer out. Word had it Lucifer refused to kill him, fuck knew why, and instead decided if Diemos wanted the throne so badly he could have it.

  The king of Hell was currently MIA.

  Lazarus knew it was hopeless, but he had to ask. “There’s no other way?”

  “You know there isn’t.” Chaos’s gaze held an unyielding determination and a grain of pity that set Lazarus’s teeth on edge. “Diemos already has Tobias on the payroll. And the way Tobias wants you hurting, you know he’s coming for you next. We can’t let that happen.”

  Yeah, T wanted him next, and Lazarus deserved that and more. Shame he couldn’t let Tobias have at it. But that wasn’t an option. He wasn’t the only one that would suffer if he didn’t do this.

  Chaos’s gaze locked on his. “I know how tight you and T were, and I know this is gonna fuck with your head, but we need to sever the bond Tobias has with us before he takes the rest of us down with him. I don’t know abo
ut you, but I don’t get off on the idea of being Diemos’s new plaything.”

  Lazarus rested his hands on his hips and stared at the ground. It had to be done, there was no other choice. But the idea of breaking that bond with their brother, his best friend, fucking killed him. T would still be with them if it wasn’t for him. Scarlet would have walked through those doors to greet Lazarus’s mate with open arms and a wide smile on her face.

  Eve could have been his.

  Instead, his brother was lost forever. Scarlet was dead. And Eve’s welcome was a ticking time bomb of a mate who she’d end up hating when all this was over.

  “Suck it up,” his brother said. “How bad can it be? Kryos seems happy enough. That bastard’s always mooning after Meredith.”

  Kryos was the only mated male among them. His demon was leashed, which meant Tobias’s deflection didn’t pose a risk to him. He’d found Meredith close to fifty years ago, and the pair had been loved up ever since.

  Lazarus shook his head. Chaos had no idea he planned to leave after he and Eve were mated. Lazarus didn’t need to live there at the compound to do his job, but he knew the other male wouldn’t see it that way. “Right.”

  Chaos shrugged, actually grinning. “I’ve never heard him complain.”

  “You’ll wanna be next then?” Laz said, knowing the answer before Chaos spoke.

  The guy’s grin disappeared.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  “Look, if that female can help keep your shit under control, your head straight, long enough to take out T?” He shrugged again, but Laz didn’t miss the pain that flashed across his features with those words. “I figure it’s a small price to pay.”

  Lazarus didn’t comment. It felt like a fucking mammoth price to pay to him. He truly didn’t give a shit what happened to him. Not anymore. But Eve, whose life he was about to destroy, that was another matter.

  Chaos clapped him on the shoulder. “You have no choice, brother.”

  “I know,” he gritted out.

  Chaos dipped his chin. “Good. Don’t fuck it up.”

  “You’ll be the first to know.”

  If he screwed this up, they’d all be a pack of mindless, bloodthirsty demons and Diemos’s new playthings within a few weeks.

  So, yeah, fucking this up wasn’t an option.

  Chapter 7

  Lazarus groaned and rolled to his back. Fuck, his eyes felt gritty and dry, his body on fire, limbs achy. He hadn’t slept more than a few minutes at a time—how could he when he felt Eve just a floor below him? His demon had mentally paced all night, roaring and whimpering, trying to take the driver’s seat and go to her.

  He rubbed his hands over his face and jerked back the covers. And then there was this…

  He looked down his body and winced. His dick lay against his stomach and was so pumped full of blood it was fucking purple. He didn’t think he’d ever been this hard in his life. Christ, his balls throbbed as well. He couldn’t leave his room like this.

  Fuuuuck.

  The ache intensified, and he groaned again.

  Eve had just woken up.

  He knew it. Somehow, he just knew it.

  The surge of power that came from her had him undulating on the bed, teeth gritted, his damn eyes rolling back in his head. He dropped his hand to his cock, hissing when he wrapped his fingers around it. He felt like molten steel under his fingers. He squeezed tighter as another wave reached him. He spread his legs wider, kicking the covers away. They felt like sandpaper against his skin. One foot hit the floor with a thump, the other dug into the mattress as he started stroking his dick hard and fast, desperate for release.

  The waves of power kept coming and it kept him right there, hovering between pleasure and pain, grunting and straining, sweating all over his sheets, close to losing his damn mind.

  Then another surge came, so damn powerful his spine torqued and a roar tore from his throat. He started coming then, powerful spurts of scalding hot come splashing his stomach and chest that seemed to go on and on until he was shaking so hard his fucking teeth were chattering.

  When he was spent, he collapsed back, gasping for breath.

  What the fuck?

  Christ, something had caused her power to do that, those intense surges. Was Eve all right?

  His mind started conjuring up all kinds of scenarios, most of them bad. Lazarus quickly cleaned himself off with the sheet and stumbled out of bed on shaky legs, shoving on his clothes.

  He was out the door and in the elevator a few minutes later, and banged on her door as soon as he reached it. Her powers had calmed now. Had died down from a raging storm to gentle waves, and the feeling of biting down on exposed electrical wires had dropped to pleasant tingles over his skin.

  He reached down and adjusted his dick when he heard her moving toward the door. Not surprising he was hard again. He’d been hard since she came onto his radar.

  The click of the lock came next and he stood straighter when the door opened.

  Eve stood there looking flushed and disheveled. Eyes wide and glassy, lower lip red and swollen.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Lazarus said, pushing his way into her smaller one-room apartment. He strode to the bathroom and shoved the door open. “Has someone been in here? Did they hurt you? Frighten you?”

  She didn’t answer and he spun back to her, finally taking in the rest of her. She was wearing a robe, the belt tied tight, enhancing her bountiful curves. His gaze moved back up to her face, the color on her cheeks, the way her lower lip looked darker, puffy from biting it, the way her black hair was down and a little wild.

  She looked like she’d been recently fucked.

  A growl tore up his throat as he spun to the bed, to its rumpled covers, the pillow knocked to the floor. She’d been with someone? There was no room for anyone under the bed. He strode over and checked the small closet. Empty. He’d already checked the bathroom.

  His demon snarled, hating the thought just as much, and reared up, scenting the air. Only one. Eve. Then it hit him, a scent so fucking tantalizing, so intoxicating it almost knocked him on his ass.

  Sexual desire.

  He spun back to her still by the door, face pink with embarrassment, and he knew.

  She’d just come, hard. Just like he had.

  Those delicate fingers, currently gripping her robe closed, had been between her thighs, had moved over her slick, hot flesh, bringing her to orgasm at the same time as he had one floor above her. And he’d felt it. Christ, had he felt it.

  She cleared her throat. “I…” She swallowed. “I don’t know…there’s nothing…nothing wrong.”

  Lazarus’s demon started fighting harder, so hard he could feel it under his skin, the stretch and pull, the desire to shift. He needed to get the hell out of there.

  “I just, I thought I heard something. I’ll go.” He strode to the door, moving toward her, and another wave of her scent hit him, stronger. She was still turned on. What he wouldn’t give to lay her on that bed and bury his face between her thighs, to taste her, to make her come against his tongue over and over before he finally sank inside her.

  “Lazarus?” He jolted and looked down at her. He was right in front of her now, hand poised about to touch her, and he barely remembered taking the final steps to reach her.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, a slight rasp to her voice that didn’t help one fucking bit.

  His hand shot out and he grabbed the handle, yanking the door open. “Yeah, fine.” Leave before you do something you shouldn’t, before you take her on this floor right damn now.

  Before you shift into your demon form and scare the hell out of both of you.

  Lazarus strode out of the room, took the elevator to the control room, and yanked off his shirt as soon as he reached the balcony. The equinox was fast approaching—that had to be it, the reason his control was slipping. He needed to get away from here. Now. His wings sprouted from his back, allowing himself to partially sh
ift, and he dove off the side, taking to the skies.

  He flew for hours, but no matter how far he went he could still feel her.

  What the fuck was he going to do?

  “You’re doing great, Eve,” James said, smile encouraging. “Now let’s try again, okay?”

  Eve wasn’t so sure. She felt like she sucked at this. They’d been there all afternoon and still she couldn’t block him.

  “Close your eyes,” he said. “That’s it. Can you see the door?”

  “Yes.” She envisioned a solid wooden door with heavy iron bolts and hinges, one she could close and lock, as his thoughts filtered into her mind. He was reciting the alphabet. Listening to him was so different than when she’d had Eric in her head. She didn’t know if it was a human/demon thing, but James’s thoughts were crisp, focused, not jumbled and scattered. They didn’t make her want to scream, so that was a plus.

  “Okay, now I want you to start closing it. I want you to block that doorway and lock it shut. Lock me out, Eve.”

  He finished the alphabet and started on something else; she had no idea what it was. She opened her eyes. He had a book open in front of him, and he grinned and flashed her the cover. Science fiction by the looks.

  Eve closed her eyes again and shoved the door closed has hard as she could, but something stopped it. She curled her fingers into fists and mentally pushed against it harder. James’s voice continued to fill her head, it dipped in volume several times, cut off for a few seconds, and then she had to let go.

  Pain sliced through her head and she gasped.

  “Eve, are you all right?”

  James got out of his seat and came around, crouching beside her. She nodded, but that made her head hurt more.

  “Shit, nosebleed,” James said and rushed to a cupboard across the room.

  She looked down. Blood dripped onto the table she sat at. “I’m sorry.”

  He grabbed a box of tissues and put them on the table beside her. “Here, use these, and you have nothing to be sorry for. I pushed you too hard for your first try—”