A Glow of Stars & Dusk by Eve L. Mitchell

Dark-Haired and Bitterentered the room along with the blond one from last night. “Still alive?”

“Chaz.” I pointed at the long-haired demon. “Zel.” I pointed at Bitterness and then looked over their shoulders. “Sam’s outside, who are you?” I asked the blond.

“I can be whoever you want me to be,” he answered with a wink, and despite myself, I smiled at the small dose of normality.

“Your name will be fine for now,” I told him as he grinned at me. He wouldn’t look out of place on the TV show Vikings, with his blond hair pulled back on top, two braids holding the top of his hair back, and the sides of his head shaved. A blond trimmed beard did little to hide the scar that ran in a curve down the right side of his face.

“Ros.”

“Ros?” The way he said it made me think it was like the others’ and had a z in it. “R-o-z?”

“S.”

“Okay.” I looked at the three of them and felt the shiver run over my spine. “So where are the other two?”

“We’re letting her interrogate us now?” Zel muttered resentfully. His hair wasn’t as dark as Sam’s, but it was still a darker brown than Chaz’s. Zel’s hair was cut short, in a low fade, his crystal blue eyes cold and glacial, already startling with his dark skin tone. Adding in the two scars that ran down his forehead and over his eyes but stopped midway down his cheeks, made his eyes more obvious. He was memorable and not in a good way. He was clean-shaven too—it was as if he wanted you to see his scars. He was incredibly intimidating, and I couldn’t hold his stare for long.

“Where did Ruairidh go?” I asked Chaz.

“We need to do this first.” Chaz held my arm up to Zel, who looked at it and then glared at me as if it was my intent to have a red angry handprint on my forearm.

“When?” Zel snapped at me.

“Outside.”

“She’s a fucking liability,” Zel grumbled to Ros. “You better go get him.”

“Him, who’s him? Where are the other two?”

“There’s nothing to say we can’t gag her, is there?” Zel asked Chaz with an almost pleading look.

“I can still hear you, you know,” I told him with a pointed glare.

“And we can still hear you,” Sam said as he stalked into the room. “What has she done now? I don’t know why I keep leaving this room only to be called back.” Wordlessly Zel held my arm up, and Sam looked at it before he glared at me. “We move now.” He turned and walked out of the room, and Zel hurried after him.

I looked at Ros and Chaz. “What’s going on?”

“Can you travel?” Chaz asked me as he pulled my sleeve carefully over my arm.

“Do you mean can I walk?” I stood up from the bed. “Yes, I can walk.”

“You’re the worst witch I ever met,” Ros said, grinning at me. “I’ll take her,” he told Chaz, who looked between us but eventually nodded.

“Take me where?” I asked the blond demon, who was smiling at me as if I were his new toy. “Why am I worried about this? Where is Ruairidh?”

“We put him back where he belonged.”

My jaw dropped as I stopped pulling on the jeans. “What?” I looked at Chaz. “Put him back? Back where?”

“His home.” Ros looked at Chaz with a frown. “That’s where I was while you were out screaming in the mist.”

“Could he hear me?” I asked as I zipped the jeans, then pretended to concentrate on putting my jacket on.

“Girl, the whole entire underworld heard you.” Ros snickered as he walked out of the room, calling for Zel to get two ready.

Two of what, I didn’t know and I didn’t care. Ruairidh had left me in the fog. He had allowed them to take him home. He hadn’t stayed.

“The world of men can be disappointing,” Chaz murmured quietly beside me.

“You lived in it long?” I asked as I surreptitiously wiped my eyes.

“Been a long time since I was topside,” he said with a soft smile my way.

“Should I be flattered?” I asked as I shook my head.

“No,” Chaz replied as he looked at me sorrowfully before he looked over my shoulder. “Your friend is better where he is. He would have caused you harm.”

“He left me.” I sniffed and rubbed my nose. “What more harm could he have done?”

“They would not protect him had he stayed, whereas you would have been distracted and in harm’s way looking out for him.”

“Maybe,” I admitted softly. “Doesn’t make it better.”

“I know.”

“What do you guard?” I asked curiously.

Chaz looked at me in surprise before looking towards the open door. “What do you mean?”

“Sam.” I rubbed my forehead. “Seriously, that’s the worst demon name ever by the way,” I told Chaz with complete seriousness. “Anyway, Sam said you are Guard? The guard? Demon guard?” I waited expectantly. “So what do you guard?”

“I’ll let Sam explain it to you.”

We walked out of the small room, and Chaz led me to the back garden where the fog still lingered at the gate. Looking at it now, properly, I wondered if I had been struck on the head and had a concussion or something, because the fact that I had walked out into that earlier with no fear could only be a result of a head injury. No one in their right mind would enter that willingly.

“What moves in it?” I asked as I watched the distorted shadows within it. Hound came and stood beside me, and unthinkingly I stroked his leather skin.

“Is she petting the hellhound?” Ros asked in an excited whisper.

“I think the more important thing to note is that the hellhound is letting her pet it,” said a new voice.

I looked over at the newcomer, who had walked around from the side of the house. Tall like the others, reddish brown hair, which was unkept and almost curly. His thick bushy beard matched his hair in that it was wild and untamed. He had a scar through his upper lip, which cleaved his facial hair slightly. Like the others, he wore the dark tunic over leather trousers, only his arms were so massive they were bare rather than covered by the black undershirt that the others wore. The crisscrossing of scars on his arms fascinated me. Dark blue eyes appraised me before he looked to Sam with a nod.

“Pen?” Sam asked.

“Wiping the friend.”

“What does that mean?” I stepped forward as I glared at them both. “What does wiping mean?”

“He’s removing us from his memories,” Chaz explained as he pulled me back. “It is easier for him.”

“What about me? What about when he looks for me?”

“He won’t.” The newcomer looked at the others with a knowing grin.

Dread filled my veins. “What did you do?”

“He thinks you’re a happy girl,” Bushy Beard told me as he winked at the others.

“Which one are you?” I snapped.

“Der.”

“Why would my best friend think I am happy when I am being held against my will by a bunch of demons?”

“He doesn’t think we’re demons,” Der answered with a casual shrug.

“What does he think you are?” I pressed and was even more worried when I saw him fight back his laugh.

“He doesn’t think we are anything as he hasn’t seen all of us.”

“All of you?” I looked around at the five of them, some were trying not to laugh, Chaz was not making eye contact, and one was ignoring the conversation entirely while he checked his weapons and watched the fog. Hewas the one I was interested in, he would tell me. “Sam?”

“Witch?”

“What is he saying?”

Sam turned to me slightly, his eyes once again travelling slowly over me. “He’s saying your friend is content to give you privacy for a while, you’re…tied up.”

Zel and Ros started laughing, and I closed my eyes briefly before I took a step towards Sam. “Tied up with what?” I knew the answer, I just needed him to say it so I could justifiably slap someone.

“Let’s just say he’ll knock from now on,” Sam told me with that irritating smirk. “Your little kink may get him into your bed after all.”

“He thinks I’m sleeping with you?” I demanded as I spun to confront Der incredulously.

“Fuck no, not me,” Der laughed as he slapped Sam on the back, and he and Ros and Zel started to walk to the end of the garden. “And trust me, woman, he doesn’t think you’re sleeping.”

“You!” I glared at Sam even as I shook my head trying to get the image of me in bed with Sam out of my thoughts. It wasn’t as distasteful an image as I wanted it to be. “He’ll know that’s a lie. I haven’t had sex in yea—” I shut myself off abruptly when I saw Sam’s eyes gleam with what I was about to reveal.

The sixth one appeared from the back door. “He seemed to be very convinced. In fact, even when we put him in his home, he immediately left it. He’s in the public house he frequents right now, telling a very pretty barmaid all about how loud you’re screaming for more.”

I looked at the newcomer. “So you’re number six?” I snarled.

“Pen, at your service.” His dark blond hair was cut short, he was almost slim compared to the rest of them. He was also the most instantly attractive. Maybe it was his build, his almost fashionable hairstyle, his rough stubble or the light brown eyes, but with this one, you didn’t need to be fighting past terror or apprehension to appreciate his looks.

“Why couldn’t you have been the one to sleep with me?” I asked. The garden was silent for a moment before Der and Ros were howling with laughter, and Sam’s eyes narrowed on me.

“As much as I am sure the experience is…enlightening…” Pen glanced at Sam. “Some pleasures are not for me to experience.”

“Did he just say I’m ugly?” I asked Chaz as Pen joined the other three, and they huddled together.

“Come, Star, we need to leave,” Chaz said instead of answering as he led me to join the others.

“Little witch, you’re with me,” Ros called to me over his shoulder. “This should be fun.”

“She travels with me.” Sam’s hand came down on my shoulder, halting me from crossing over to Ros.

“I don’t want to,” I answered immediately as I tried to shake him off and go to Ros’s side.

“I don’t want to hear you either, but we don’t always get what we want,” Sam told me harshly as he picked me off my feet and tossed me over his shoulder in a proper fireman’s lift.

As I hit his back, trying to free myself of him, he spoke to the others in a language I didn’t know. My feet tried to kick him until he slapped my arse so hard I stilled in shock. Sam never stopped talking, and then Chaz was in front of me with an apologetic smile.

“No, I’ll be good!” I yelled as he wrapped a blindfold around me before catching my hands and binding them too.

“It’s too much,” I heard Chaz murmur before he was instructed to “just do it.” My cries of protest were silenced when they gagged me.

Blindfolded, bound and gagged, I felt Sam start to walk, and he shifted me lightly on his shoulder, one arm holding me secure.

“You know,” Zel said after a few moments, “when she’s quiet, you can appreciate her butt.”

“Nice and round,” one of them agreed, and I was sure it was Ros.

“She can still hear you,” Chaz reminded them softly in admonishment.

“And I don’t want to hear it at all,” Sam growled. “Make sure nothing touches her, except me.”

“They won’t even get close,” someone boasted.

Who was they? I wondered frantically.

“I’m counting on you to make sure that’s the case, Der,” Sam said with authority. “Der, Ros, in front. Zel, you’re behind with Chaz. Pen with me.” Sam shifted me slightly again. “Hellhounds?”

“Already in front,” Chaz confirmed.

“We travel fast, sure, and together. She’ll draw them like moths to a flame, try not to engage. We can always clean up later.” I heard them all agree or mutter, but Sam stayed still until they were quiet. “Guard, be swift and ready,” he told them once more. I felt him turn around. “Hellhounds, hunt.”

What followed next was terrifying. As Sam took off at a run, the screams, snarls and cries that all mixed in together may not have been so bad if I could have seen. That may have helped, but the unknown made the whole experience more frightening. Sam never stumbled, his feet stayed true and steady, and his hold never lessened. A few times, I was spun around, and I could only surmise that he was fighting. Fighting what, I didn’t know, and each time, I felt the huge presence of a hellhound beside me.

“Fuck me, there’s a lot,” I heard one of them grumble, and my fists tightened on the back of Sam’s tunic.

“Witch, hold tight,” I heard Sam say before his arm was gone from my legs and he lunged forward. The gag muffled my scream as my legs flailed at the sudden loss of the anchor of his arm, and I started to slide down his body. Without thinking, I wrapped my legs around him and heard him grunt as I hooked my bound arms around his neck, knocking the side of his head with a heavy thump. Sam grumbled at the blow, but his focus was on other things, and I was too scared to take satisfaction in the fact I had just hit him, albeit unintentionally.

My head burrowed into his neck, trying in vain to make myself as small as possible as I felt him move around me and the sound of metal hitting flesh surrounded me. As his breathing increased in exertion, my legs held him tighter until suddenly he was still, and then we were spinning. His yell as he wrapped both arms around me made me press into him more.

The silence was deafening, except my heavy breathing through my nose. A hand tugged the gag from my mouth and instantly covered my lips. “Shh, not a sound, control your breathing.” Next the blindfold was removed, and I jerked my head back to glare at Sam, but his other hand moved quickly to cushion the blow of my head hitting whatever was behind me.

I was wrapped around him, one of his hands in my hair, the other over my mouth, his body pressed into mine. I looked away from his forest green eyes and looked over his shoulder, and I squeaked.

We were in a poorly lit small space. I suddenly realised there was nothing behind me, it was under me. We were lying down, not standing up. I was so disoriented. Sam waited until I had myself under control, and he slowly removed his hand.

Bending his head to my ear, he whispered, “The ground collapsed, they knew we were coming, nod if you’re okay.”

“Who are they?” I whispered back.

“I said nod.”

“I say bite me,” I snarled back.

He did.

His teeth dug into my shoulder as his hand covered my mouth again as I cried out in pain. “When I say nod, fucking nod,” he whispered harshly in my ear. “If I say speak, then speak.”

He lifted his head to look at me in question, and in the dim light of the hole, I glared at him. My head tried to turn to take in our space. We were buried? I was buried alive. With a demon? How deep were we buried? Why wasn’t he trying to get out?

His mouth hooked up at the right side. My face must have been showing my panic, and I tried to calm down, even as he tried to hide his amusement at my reaction.

“You need to stop panicking and breathe slowly,” Sam whispered almost reassuringly into my ear. “I’m holding as much as I can off of us, but I can’t make fresh air. Shallow breaths only, witch.”

He tried to move and couldn’t. Releasing my fingers from around his neck, I stretched them out and realised he had something pinning him down as well as all the dirt around us. I looked over his shoulder at the compressed dirt waiting to fall on us. He was holding this off of us?

Lifting my head slightly, I breathed into his ear. “Is it heavy?”

“Don’t speak,” Sam growled as he placed his hand softly over my mouth again, and I felt him adjust his hips. My head dropped back, and I welcomed the cushion his hand provided.

As I lay there, I realised that my legs were still raised on either side of him. My face flushed as I rather inappropriately realised, in any other situation, we would present quite the provocative image. Was this what Ruairidh thought he saw?

Sam’s head dropped onto my shoulder for a moment. “I should be able to move,” he told me, and I could hear the fatigue in his voice. “It’s not just earth and concrete atop us, something is pressing down on us. I can’t move it, all I can do is hold it off. We should get aid to us soon, the Guard will find us.”

I nodded and we lay in silence. The longer we lay, the more I realised I was not unaffected by having him pressing down on me, his breath warm against my neck. I had a large, not unattractive male between my legs, one hand in my hair, the other resting to the side of my face. My legs were drawn up, resting loosely around him, and my arms were still hooked around his neck. Sam moved again, and I almost groaned. He sensed it and looked at me questioningly. When I didn’t meet his look, he nudged my head slightly. In exasperation, I glared at him and felt my cheeks redden when I saw the knowing look in his eyes. His hips moved again, and I looked at him in alarm. A small smirk formed on his lips, and I stared at them for too long.

“Stop it,” I hissed even as my tummy flipped when he pressed into me again. “You’re not making this easier,” I reprimanded him.

“Demon,” he said as way of explanation, and I saw an almost grin appear. However, the near smile was gone as he met my incredulous glare, and he dipped his head slightly in acknowledgement of my reprimand, but I could have sworn I saw the smirk return.

We lay there longer, my body temperature soaring with Sam lying on top of me. His weight was becoming too heavy, and I tried to drag in some air. Sam recognised the problem and tried to lift himself off me, but all he could move was his lower body. He tried a few times, but the friction he was causing was not helping my already heightened sense of awareness of him. My hands fisting into his tunic made him stop and look at me questioningly.

“You’re very reactive,” he breathed softly into my ear. “Are you always this sensitive?” His lower body moved again, and my legs tightened of their own accord.

Was he freaking kidding me? Demon or not, this was not the time.

Harsh scraping sounds silenced my words of outrage, and Sam went still as he listened. I automatically held my breath. A bad idea when you’re already short of air. The pressure from my lungs was building rapidly.

My cough was loud in the quiet, and I caught Sam’s unbelieving look before the rock and dirt erupted all around us.