The Demon Lord (A Demon Outlaws Novella) (Entangled Edge) by Paula Altenburg Page A

Her eyes, fastened on Allia’s face, softened. “ Hunter and hunted . There are so many ways in which a man can destroy a woman.” Her handmaid sighed. “When it comes to matters of the heart, immortals know nothing.”
    Allia knew enough. She loved her sisters. She loved Desire, too. She loved the people of this world, imperfect though they might be. She would do this for them, because there were things Desire didn’t know either.
    The goddesses were far more selfish than she believed.
    Immortals could not kill other immortals without owning the deaths. And those deaths would fight their new owners for release for all eternity. The goddesses had thought mortals could kill demons and save them from direct confrontation. Instead, demons had torn the mortal world apart.
    The goddesses should have fled, leading the demons away. Her sisters, however, had refused to run any longer. They’d grown to love the physical pleasures this world had to offer and chosen to take a stand in it. While they were a mere dozen against what had then been tens of thousands of demons, the goddesses had truly believed that they could defeat demons with the help of the vast number of mortals. Demon numbers were cut to little more than a hundred, but it came at too great a cost. Mankind was brought to its knees. Innumerable people had died fighting. Once-vast cities of glass and steel from pre demon days had been crushed and turned to rubble. The best the goddesses could do in the aftermath was create boundaries that protected what remained of the world, and which demons couldn’t cross, giving it time to recover.
    Guilt over the past had never abated for Allia. Her heart continued to weep for the loss of so much beauty and passion. Goddesses might not own those mortal deaths, but Allia believed the responsibility for each and every one was theirs.
    “I do this willingly,” Allia said. “I agreed to it.”
    She sent Desire to wait in safety a few hundred yards away, where she could see all that transpired but not be seen. Allia had brought her handmaid with her for courage and to know that there was someone nearby who would weep for her if the Demon Lord remained unmoved by her charms. Despite her brave words, Allia did not know what he would do to her.
    Perhaps he wouldn’t find her death too difficult to own.Desire was to relay the night’s events to her sisters if Allia failed to win him.
    Allia did not intend to sacrifice herself outright. Goddess rain would offer her some protection. It was how the goddesses defended themselves, and what they had used to limit the demons’ ability to move around in this world. Demons couldn’t bear the touch of rain. It burned them the way fire scorched mortal flesh.
    Calling it against the Demon Lord inside his territory would be unwise, however, particularly considering her purpose in being here. Demons used fire as their weapon, and the Demon Lord owned it all.
    Her gentle goddess rain would never stand against the full force of his fire. She had decided instead to call her rain to the center of this oasis, using it to create a warm, protective pool that no demon could enter, and to which she could flee if she felt in any way threatened.
    She lifted her hand to the heavens and gave a flick of her wrist, as if turning a knob. A bank of low-lying clouds swirled in response, obscuring one patch of the glittering night sky. Seconds later a deluge began, pommeling the ground with growing intensity. It fell for long moments before gradually tapering off.
    Allia coaxed the last drops of goddess rain from the clouds’ core and eyed with satisfaction the small pool of water now cradled in a hollow bed of rock and sand. Water already existed here naturally beneath the desert’s dry surface soil, nurturing the roots of palms, Joshua trees, and the perfume-drenched flowering plants. What she had brought would therefore remain here for hours, or at least until the hot sun rose in the morning and the dry air