Page 20 of The Devil of London

We’d followed it to the asylum, which she’d been held in. The moment we’d entered, I’d heard her heartbreaking screams echoing down the vacant hallway. Upon entering the rows of “doctrine” students, I’d gazed at her pale, broken body as she’d begged them for death. Whatever control I’d held on the reins snapped. I’d watched an incubus staring down at her swollen, abused cunt being fucked by the machine he controlled.

Aderyn had not agreed to be experimented on, nor had the other women there. If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was a rapist who preyed on those weaker than them. The entire asylum was filled with women they’d brutalized for their entertainment. It had not been humans, either. Immortals had set up an intricate network for feeding their needs. One that went against the covenant created to safeguard humans. But they hadn’t been feeding on only humans. They’d captured immortals who wouldn’t die from their endless brutality.

I’d stood there in shocked horror as the machine raping her punched into her red, swollen cunt. Her pain fed the daimones. Her blood fed the vampires who’d opened veins until blood ran in rivers onto the floor beneath her. Each orgasm they’d forced her to feel fed the male incubus demons until they’d been too drugged to sense our presence. None of them realized who she was, or what she was. Aderyn was the cause of their unending lust.

She had held them prisoner to her as surely as they had held her prisoner. Aderyn’s scent was an aphrodisiac to all immortals. It lured them to her, altering their minds until the only thought they held was to own, control, and taste from the endless well of pleasure between her thighs. Unlike me and my men, they weren’t immune to the temptation she created. There was magic on her lips, and her kiss invited obsession.

We’d slaughtered the entire assembly of immortals without thought or care. There’d been no mercy granted for those who’d trespassed against me or my wife. I’d ripped them apart, limb by bloody fucking limb, until her soft cries turned to pleasure. We’d stood there, unable to look away as she’d unraveled into madness. Once I’d carefully removed the metal phallus pumping into her cunt, she’d opened her startling mossy-green eyes, and whispered my name as if I’d been some sort of savior instead of the man who’d failed her.

The sound of the door leading into the apartment tore my attention from the beauty sleeping soundlessly beside me. Lifting from the bed careful not to disturb her, I left it. Slipping on a robe, I exited the bedroom to find Merikh, Rue, and Aaryn seated on the couches, all of them looking haggard.

“Report,” I ordered, heading for the sidebar. Grabbing four glasses, I brought them and the decanter of bourbon to the chesterfield couches, pouring two fingers of liquid amber into each before sitting beside Merikh to hear what they’d discovered.

“You will not like what we discovered at Cameron’s house,” Aaryn declared in a tired, rough breath of air. “He’s obsessed with her.”

“That’s sugar coating it, asshole,” Merikh muttered. “Cameron’s a Herne. He’s been stalking her for a while now. He has images of her plastered all over his walls.”

“Fucking hell. She’s got the worst taste in men,” I uttered, which had the men grunting in agreement until I eyed them coldly. “Assholes.”

“Hey, we’re agreeing with you, Khaos. Her track record with men normally leads us to the fucks wanting to end her. Merikh, you, Maxwell Herne, Paris Herne, Carter Herne, and now Cameron Herne? Aderyn has a thing for hunters. Her taste in men sucks.”

“Careful, asshole,” Merikh growled in warning.

“I wasn’t talking about you two assholes. But the other men she seeks out? They’re all fucking related to the bastards who’ve been tracking her since the moment she was reborn as a mortal.” Rue lifted his glass, tossing it back before he turned toward me. “That sick fuck has a magic-nullifying cage he intends to put her in.” Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a thumb drive and handed it to me. “I hacked his computer and downloaded several files he has on her. Thought you would want to see what the sick prick has been watching her do.”

“Do we have eyes on him now?” I asked as I felt the weight of the thumb drive in my hand.

“I put a team of our best operators on him.” Merikh leaned forward as a feminine whimper sounded from the bedroom. “Is she still having nightmares of the asylum?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” I admitted as I rose, moving to the laptop I kept in the suite before reclaiming my seat. Aderyn had fallen in love with the first chesterfield I had bought, which ended up with me adding one to every fucking room I’d ever imagined her lounging in beside me.

Firing up the laptop, I pushed the thumb drive into the side and clicked the window. Thousands of images of her began appearing on the screen. Images of her at her shop, home, and some of her outside of them. One with her naked on her bed forced my eyebrows to push together until a line creased between them.

“This asshole has cameras inside her home,” I growled as my vision turned red.

“Yeah. He’s got a spank bank of her undressed plastered all over his bedroom walls,” Merikh hissed through clenched teeth. “Ryat is currently at her house to remove the cameras Cameron planted inside of it. I am guessing she didn’t let him inside, which means he had someone else do it for him.”

“Last year, one of her employees was date raped by some sick fuck. She was held for days before being released with no memory of where she’d been held or who’d raped her. The Herne’s have their own immortals on payroll, which would make it easy enough to have the mortals Aderyn trusted, betray that trust. They wouldn’t even know they’d done so either.”

I frowned before studying an image of Aderyn with her thighs parted, and her fingers between the silky folds of her cunt.

She had lied to me when she’d claimed it’d been fifty years since she’d gotten off. Not that I would punish her for it. I loved that she was sexual and took care of her needs when they arose. How many times had I watched her coming undone for me? Enough to know she had not been privy of the cameras he’d had planted in her bedroom.

“Tell Ryat to remove the camera from her neighbor’s house as well. It’s upstairs angled into the bedroom.” Once I’d given the order, I closed the laptop and stared at Merikh. “The Gathering of Lords might draw the hunters to us. But she’ll know if we’re watching her too closely. I don’t want her trying to run when we’re so close to removing the fucking curses. We can’t afford any distractions, not even from her. We’ve worked too damn hard and long to stop now. I’ve amended the contract to ensure she’ll be around us more. That will allow the men time to monitor the creatures descending on us for the gathering. I need to know who is trustworthy, and who’d betray us for my spot at the top.”

“That’s easy enough to answer.” Aaryn snorted. “Everyone wants power, Khaos. Everyone wants to be the kingpin. And we all know hungry dogs aren’t loyal and can’t be trusted.”

“No, not really. I don’t want the crown. I merely want it long enough to force those who cursed us to face me. Once I’ve carried that out, I don’t care who is crowned king. The moment I have Aderyn back as my wife, I’m stepping down to make up for the hell I’ve put her through.”

“You can’t do that, Khaos. We’re building an empire, and we both know she’ll expect nothing less when she houses her memories.”

“Then I’ll crown her queen and serve at her leisure. But I promise you this: she isn’t leaving my bed for at least a fucking year unless it’s to shower, eat, or fuck on every surface of our home.” At my roughly uttered words, images of her spread out on the table as I devoured her deliciously sugary cunt had my mouth watering to taste her.

Aderyn thought I was violent, malicious, and mean. I wasn’t, though. I was the result of having her within grasp but never being able to have her in the one way I wanted her. If I lowered my guard with her, she’d turn on me. Having her hate me made it easier to feed on faceless women. Not feeding wasn’t a possibility as the king of incubus demons. If I didn’t fuck, the world would flow red with endless rivers of blood. Still, every woman I took was lacking compared to Aderyn. I didn’t care about them before or after I’d slaked my eternal hunger on their soft bodies. Only one woman would ever be enough for me, and she hated me.

Aderyn had a damn good reason to hate me. I’d ensured she knew I was a faithless, uncaring prick because it fortified her hatred of me. If she knew she filled my mind from dusk until dawn, she’d want more than I could give her. Aderyn was the one thing I couldn’t live without. She’d thought I’d given her the freedom she’d asked for, but I hadn’t.

I’d simply erected a much larger prison for her. The idea of not seeing her hadn’t sat well with me, and not a day passed that I hadn’t tracked her down and watched from the shadows. I’d seen her pain when she thought no one was looking. I had seen the tears flowing down her cheeks when she’d felt alone. In the forest, when she had gone mad. I had been there, standing guard outside the cave she’d chosen to slumber in, protecting her.

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