bedeviled & beyond 06 - bedeviled & befouled by sam cheever Page B

control?”
    He stared at me, pain shining brightly in his clear, blue gaze.
    “You’ll have to kill them all.”
    “Yes.”
    “Frunk me to Hades.”
    “Exactly. And it gets worse.”
    I snorted, figuring he was joking. But when I looked into his eyes I knew he was about as far from jokes as he could get. “What? Give it all to me so I know how much shit I’m gonna need to wade through to fix this.”
    James Phelps, Seraphim of the Celestial Realm, shook his gorgeous blond head. “You had to acquire your mother’s language gene didn’t you?”
    I didn’t think that needed a response. There was absolutely nothing frunkin’ wrong with my language.
    “The royals of the court won’t go down without a fight. Even now they plot to disconnect Dialle and you from the court to save themselves.”
    I frowned. “Disconnect?” He lifted an eyebrow and I sighed. “I’m about to become the catch of the day again aren’t I?”
    “You are. But don’t expect them to release you once you’re caught. The only way to save the court from its current, rapid rate of decline is to kill both you and Dialle and install a new king and queen as quickly as possible.”
    “That’s frunkin’ wonderful.”
    ~SC~
    Moments later, I shifted into Dialle’s quarters, hoping to find him there and avoid the other members of the court. The room was empty and looked as if a war had been fought between its walls. The stench of dark magic stained the air and scorch marks slashed across the draperies lining the walls, the thick velvet hanging in tatters along the floor. The bed where Dialle and I had made love just days earlier looked as if it had been sliced with a sword. The contents of the mattress bulged outward from the jagged rift in its center and trailed down the sides to the floor. Puffs of stuffing littered the ground, skittering past on a brisk draft.
    I shivered and my gaze slid to the long wall of windows. Two of the massive panes of glass were broken, and debris blew into the room through the shattered surface. My horrified gaze quickly scanned the room, moving to the closet and the single door leading into Dialle’s personal hygiene room. I splashed through a puddle as I pushed the door open, a power ball sizzling on my palm. The hygiene room was in even worse shape than his bed chamber was. The shower tube had been ripped from the wall and soapy water poured from the hole in a steady stream, creating a growing puddle that spread across the floor and out the door to saturate the once-beautiful carpets. The mirror over the sink was cracked, its surface used to send a horrible message, written in blood. The words scrawled across the reflective glass made me shudder. Dark. Cold. Evil.
    It was the message of a fractured mind. I only hoped it hadn’t been Dialle who’d written it.
    I hurried back out into the bedchamber, heading for the door. I would find Gerch or Brina and find out what was going on. As soon as I opened the door, though, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.
    The halls were thick with devils, demons and gargoyles. The combined stench of sulfur and blood made me gag and cover my mouth. Metal clanged against metal as the dark worlders of the court fought a brutal battle, fed by a depth of bloodlust I hadn’t seen in a long time, not since the Devil had cast a magic veil over the Earth, infusing everyone with a lethal kind of anger.
    I watched the chaos beyond the door for a long moment, trying to figure out how best to move through it without being immediately skewered. But before I could talk myself into stepping into the melee, a sword blade appeared from nowhere and slashed toward my face.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Into the Devil’s Back Yard
    Alas our hero’s in a spot, his predicament so dire,
    But our young miss will fail him not, she’ll yank him from the fire.
    Without even thinking, I lifted my hand and sprayed power into my attacker’s face. He flew backward with a grunt, smacking into the wall on the