Demons Don't Always Tell The Truth (Kate Storm Series Book 3) (9 page)

13. The Demon King.

Used.

Ash had been using me all along. Using his sin to manipulate me into wanting him.

That's what Morgan meant.

I understood that.

But it didn't make sense.

Why would a gorgeously sexy demon lord seduce a half-bred chunky witch?

I could see it if I looked like Morgan. Males of all species wanted her. She was beautiful. Alluring. Deadly. It made her all that more attractive to men.

I wasn't Morgan. I wasn't incredibly sexy.
I
didn't turn heads when I went into a bar.
I
didn't get the free drinks.
I
didn't cause men to stop dead in their tracks.

I wasn't resentful. But I knew myself. My limits.

That's what made my relationship with Ash so incredibly special. He'd picked me, the chubby half-breed over the alluring vampire.

Ash had never even looked once at Morgan. His amber eyes  heated only for me.

He hadn't needed anything else to seduce me, I'd fallen for him within a heartbeat. Taken one look at his pewter horns, his scars and his incredible body and melted faster than the Wicked Witch of the West.

"His sin is lust. So what?" I didn't mean to hurl the question at Morgan like a steel gauntlet. She was my UDBF. We might be at slight odds, but she had my back.

But this . . . This stabbed directly into each and every one of my insecurities.

"It's not just lust, Kate." Morgan took a deep breath. Her hands balled into pale fists at her sides. "He takes a person's lust and twists it. Twists their desires. Uses their deepest and darkest against them."

Oh shit.

I'd been fascinated by the new kinky side of me, the previously undiscovered and unknown side of me, who'd come to life with Ash.

I'd thought I was becoming comfortable with myself, coming to terms with the whole witch, allowing her to reign supreme in a relationship I felt valued in. A relationship I wanted and was willing to fight for.

If Morgan was right, none of that was true.

Had it all been a lie? A trick to get me . . . Where? Into his bed? And then what?

"He's not just the Demon Lord of Lust. He's also the King of  Demons. He commands all the other demons and their sins."

Call me Wicked, but, Spirits, that just tugged all the bristles on my broom. Ash was not just a demon lord, he was King of the Demons.

Should I call him master?

"Kate!" I re-focused on Morgan. Right. This was a bad thing. Somehow. If Ash had been using his sin to control me, to become involved in a relationship with me then that was not good. Was it?

It depended on his reasoning.

Again, I was a half-bred witch. Nothing special. I couldn't help him in hell. I couldn't help him anywhere really. For the life of me, I couldn't see any angle that benefited him by becoming involved with me.

And yet . . . He hadn't said anything.

Not one word since Morgan lashed out with her accusations.

What did that mean?

"Ash?"

He was the only one with the answers.

He stared at Morgan. Glared at her.

He wouldn't look at me.

"Ash."

I didn't ask him this time. He wasn't the type of demon to avoid confrontation.

"Is this true? Did you use your sin to seduce me?" I wanted to laugh. I really did. It was waiting there, right below the mounting suspicion, ready to be set free and laugh at these crazy accusations.

Waiting for Ash to tell me it was all a lie.

"Yes."

A little piece of my heart broke. Ripped apart and shattered. Into a zillion tiny pieces.

I struggled to keep my head up. I couldn't look at anyone else.

My back hit the wall. I didn't remember taking a step back. Didn't remember uttering a sound. Or crossing my arms over my chest to protect myself. Foolish gesture.

There wasn't any point. I'd been slain open with one word. One nauseating word. One horrible, unbelievable word.

"You set me up? You arranged for us to meet? To become involved?"

I couldn't just kick him out the door. No. Not me. I had to drag the awful truth out of him. In front of witnesses. Laid bare and naked for everyone to see.

"Yes."

There it was. That word again.

Nothing else. No explanation. No emphatic defense. No denials.

Ash lifted his head. Cool amber met my eyes.

"I did plan to meet you. I knew who you were before we were introduced and I used my power to seduce you, to draw you to me."

A part of me, the small one that refused to let another piece of my heart break, another piece of
me
shatter, started to harden. Like a broken bone growing more calcium to strengthen the break, attempting to protect the break, heal the wound.

Making it stronger than it had been before.

"Stop." I held out one hand, then just as quickly wrapped it around my chest. "Don't say another word. Just leave."

I didn't want to hear anything else.

He'd said enough.

He'd met me due to some agenda he had. Some secret reason.

Ash hadn't taken one look at me and fallen hard. He knew what he was about. He'd planned it all.

The reason didn't matter any more. It would only make it worse. And I couldn't handle anything worse when my life was already falling into bits and pieces.

I'd been targeted my entire life by people who wanted to hurt me. Mock me. Make me less.

You'd think I would expect it at this point.

"Kate."

I refused to look at him. It just didn't matter.

I'd fallen for him and Ash . . . Ash had his secret agenda.

Drake shifted. "You need to leave."

"Yeah, Ass. You need to get the hell out of here."

Morgan might have echoed Drake and Al. I wasn't sure. There was a ringing in my ear. A loud buzzing that began to take up all of my concentration.

I thought it started in my ears, but I was wrong. It actually started in my toes. A funny, shaking vibration. And it didn't stop there.

It moved to my ankles, my calves then my entire legs. I'd never experienced anything like it before. As if I was slowly being enveloped in a giant bee-hive. Ten hives. A thousand.

The vibration rattled my hips. My ribcage.

"Kate?"

Morgan had her hands tight to my shoulders. She shook me. Funny. I didn't know when she approached me. I was still trying to figure out the bee-hive.

"I'm sorry."

I nodded.

I knew she was. She wanted to protect me. She'd hurt me once. She hadn't wanted to do it again.

I got it. It just didn't matter right now.

She frowned at me, opened her mouth. "She needs to be alone, Morgan." Drake wrapped an arm around her waist. He used the other to pull her hand off my shoulders.

A burst of cold air and Drake and I stood together in the hall.

"Everyone else is gone." I nodded some more, vaguely aware Drake was talking to me gently as if I was a child. "She didn't mean to hurt you."

Morgan hadn't hurt me. Ash had.

There was another burst of cold air.

The buzzing vibration hit my upper chest. My shoulders and neck. It swallowed me whole.

"Doll?" Al patted my cheek with his paw.

I didn't remember falling down.

"Doll? You're shakin' pretty bad." A small warm tongue licked my lips. "Don't worry. It's just us. I won't let anything bad happen to ya."

He meant now. Al must mean he wouldn't let anything bad happen to me now.

Because it couldn't get much worse.

I'd fallen for a demon. He'd used me.

I knew my coven was cursed to fail in love. I'd grown up with stories of the horrible things that happened when we ignored the curse. I'd even tested it myself a time or two.

I hadn't understood.

Not even a tiny bit.

If I had, I would have run far and long.

I never would have given that demon the time of day. Never would have planned to go to battle for him. For us.

I hadn't an inking of what love actually was.

Had not a single clue of what it truly meant.

To give everything. To offer up the foundation, the utter essence of yourself to another person. To chance it all.

If I had, if I'd known, I never would have risked it.

I never would have held out that hope.

Look where it left me. Crumbled in my hall. Shaking, lost and without purchase. Cradling the one constant in my life, because if I let go, then the rest of me would follow.

Vibrate apart into tiny pieces and float away into nothing.

"I got ya, Doll."

I slumped onto the cold wood floor. Al curled into my neck and I grabbed him on reflex. Held him tight to my skin. I couldn't get up. Couldn't move.

Every inch of me shook.

So I just laid there and held onto him. As if my life depended on it.

14. Lost.

I wrapped the blanket tighter around my shoulders. It didn't help. I couldn't seem to get warm.

Al lay curled up on my lap underneath the blanket.

We were out on my deck.

I wasn't sure of the time. Didn't care. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't seem to breath inside. So we were outside. Sitting.

The pretty trays of appetizers still sat where I'd placed them hours ago. The food stone cold and a total waste.

I hadn't bothered to turn on the lights. Didn't want to see the lonely remains of what had been.

Clouds had moved in about an hour ago, obscuring the stars and what little light kept me company.

I tried to care. Tried to tell myself this was nothing new. How many times had I been alone? Even with the few friends I had, I was still an outcast. Not part of their group. Any group.

And I'd been fine with that. There wasn't anything I could do about it anyways. I'd made my peace. Carved out my place in two different worlds.

Created a business that made a difference in people's lives.

And now I'd made a mockery of my own.

A matchmaking witch who couldn't see the truth about her own love life? Did I even know what I was doing?

How could I be so completely fooled?

I'd known Ash was hiding things from me. I knew he had some sort of sin. I honestly hadn't thought any of that had to do with me.

No one ever went out of their way to be close to me.

Although Morgan had. She'd had her own agenda too.

What kind of witch was I, if I couldn't trust my own intuition?

I'd failed all the way around.

There was a ball in my chest. A tight fist of pain, welling and growing. I knew if I let it out, I'd feel a little better. I might be able to breathe.

But for the life of me, I couldn't get it to move. Couldn't shed a single tear. Like my inner well had dried up completely and there was nothing left but barren dirt.

"Kate."

Maybe a part of me had been waiting for him. Maybe some part knew it wasn't fully finished between us. Maybe I just didn't give a shit.

But I didn't jump or startle when he spoke my name.

He stood on the far end of my porch, deep in the shadows. I didn't know how he got there. Wasn't interested in asking.

"Kate."

Silly, stupid me. Even now, even knowing, listening to Ash admit that he had used his powers to seduce me, I couldn't stop my heart from beating faster at hearing him call for me in that deep, dark voice of his.

"I want you to listen to me. Let me explain."

Did I want to hear him? He'd already lied to me. Maybe not directly, but he had certainly seduced me with false pretenses. Why would he tell the truth now?

I shrugged under the cover. It didn't seem to matter.

Subtle as the movement was, Ash must have seen it. He stalked across the deck towards me, pulled a chair closer until it was next to mine and sat down.

I shifted my knees so we weren't touching.

Al poked his head out of the blanket and began barking. The hit man had channeled away several hours ago. The Chihuahua didn't like the demon either.

I smoothed his fur back down and waited.

"I was born a demon prince. My father was the King of Demons. The most powerful demon. Power and strength are the only things that matter in the demon realm."

Ash -
excuse me
- Asmodeus drew in a deep breath. His hand, resting on the arm of the chair, curled into a tight fist.

"We're ruthless. Demons will do anything to keep or gain power. And my father was the worst. He had no feelings, no desire for anything other than being King. He impregnated my mother to have an heir, but he didn't care for her."

His knuckles whitened.

"He didn't care for me. I was raised by my mother. I was created to inherit his empire in case of his death. If anything ever happened to him, his genes would still rule."

He uncurled his fist, flexed his hand.

"My mother met another demon just as I was becoming an adult. They started a relationship. My mother and my father hadn't been together since I was created but that didn't matter to him. He thought her relationship made him appear weak."

"So he killed her. I challenged him. And I killed him."

He stated the facts clearly. Black and white with no emotion.

I knew bits and pieces of this story. Not everything, as Asmodeus had kept several key factors to himself. I'd figured he had received his scars from the battle with his father. I hadn't known he'd been little more than a child when it happened.

And I wasn't sure I wanted to know anymore. Funny. He finally wanted to talk and share his secrets with me and I didn't want to listen.

"Look . . . Asmodeus." I couldn't call him Ash. "I don't see what this has to do with us. You lied to me. Clearly, no one forced you. You're the King of Demons. You chose to seduce me without telling me about your powers.
Your sin
."

Flames flickered to life along his shoulders and danced over his chest. He shifted his body, inhaled and the flames died out.

"All right. You're not ready to listen," he growled. "I understand. It was never my intention to hurt you, Kate. Never."  His hand cupped my chin, forcing me to look at him. "I'm sorry. I know you don't believe me, but I wanted you from the moment I saw you."

My heart made a funny wrench. He was telling me things I'd always wanted to hear and now it made everything so much worse.

"You mean the first time you plotted to use your sin to seduce me."

"No." He shook his head. "I watched you for several weeks before I approached you."

He'd watched me for weeks? He really had planned everything. His lies knew no bounds. Why?

I'd felt like a target had been painted on my back the first time I saw Ash. Now I knew it definitely had been. I still didn't know the reason. I didn't want to know it. I could only take so much.

"You and Al were just coming out of your old office. Going for a walk."

I held up my hand to stop him. I didn't care. I
wouldn't
care.

"You picked him up." Asmodeus continued on, ignoring my silent demand to stop. "We don't have pets in the demon realm so I wasn't sure what he was at first."

I glanced at him. He was staring at Al with the oddest expression on his face. Part confusion, part annoyance and something else, something I'd almost call envy.

"You attached his leash to his collar and kissed him."

Asmodeusu glanced up, caught my eye and held it.

"You had this expression of such love on your face." He shook his head like it still baffled him. "I'd never seen that before. And I wanted it." His hand cupped my jaw. "I wanted you."

I stood abruptly, knocking away his touch. I stepped back several steps.

"You had me." I reminded him. "And you lied to me. That was your choice."

"I didn't lie to you."

I laughed at him. A choked, pained sound.

"I didn't tell you everything, but I never lied to you."

I stomped towards him. "You didn't lie? But you know what your sin does. It controls a person's desire. Twists it and changes it." I shook my head at him. "You used my own desires against me."

I couldn't trust him. Couldn't trust what I felt for him.

"Yes. I did." He said it matter-of-factly. A simple statement. Not like the actual bomb it was.

"How could you?" I wanted to scream 'why' as well, but I didn't think I had it in me to hear anymore. He was destroying me piece by piece.

"I'd do anything to have you."

Oh, Sweet Spirits. How could he? How could he say that to me?

He wasn't just going to destroy me. He was going to break me down until there was nothing left.

"I want you to go."

He had to leave. There was no way I could listen to him. I couldn't hear him say the very things that made me want him. Crave him.

I couldn't allow myself to hope.

Not now.

I was whirling, trying to find a safe landing. Something to hold onto.

And as much as I wanted it to be Ash - Asmodeus - I couldn't let that happen.

I'd lost something. The ability to trust myself.

"Please, just go."

I turned my back on him and held my breath. Hugged Al tighter to my chest.

After a minute, I looked back. He was gone.

And I was all alone.