Queen of the Damned Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Queen of the Damned

  Debra Dunbar

  Copyright © 2018 by Debra Dunbar

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Also by Debra Dunbar

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “I would like to request a favor of you,” Raphael announced. We were standing in my kitchen drinking shots of Fireball. It was far too sweet and really had no more than a passing nod to whisky, but I’d been on a cinnamon kick lately and bought a gigantic bottle of the stuff when I was at the liquor store last week—a gigantic bottle that was now half empty.

  “Ask away,” I slurred. I liked being drunk. It was fun. And I’d been told by my human business partner, Michelle, that I couldn’t be legally held responsible for any contract I signed while drunk, so I was seriously thinking of making it my default state. I was a demon-sorta-angel. If I really needed to be sober, I could do so with the snap of my fingers. But who wanted to be sober when there was sticky-sweet cinnamon whisky liquor to imbibe?

  “I want your support for my Ruling Council candidate.”

  And now I was sober. Which totally sucked. With all the angels kicked out of Aaru and wandering around among the humans like a bunch of whiny homeless winged dudes, we’d needed to have weekly Ruling Council meetings. Since no one beyond me and the archangels knew that we were indefinitely-possibly-permanently locked out of Aaru, we’d reduced the Ruling Council to those with a need-to-know. But angels were weird motherfuckers, and four on the Ruling Council was making everyone but me break out in hives. Everyone was divided on whether to hold Uriel’s spot until she got back from her pilgrimage thingie or bring someone on to temporarily fill her spot, but besides that opening, we needed two more members. And no one knew who to trust right now.

  “Sure, as long as you support my candidate.”

  Rafi rolled his eyes. “We’ve all rejected the last three Lows you’ve put forward.”

  Which had totally pissed me off. Snobby fuckers. “You’ll rue the day you didn’t vote Snip in. He’s pretty awesome.”

  “Yes. He showed us just how awesome he could be. Even I wasn’t impressed with how he could play Yankee Doodle Dandy on a penny whistle shoved up his butt.”

  “That takes some real talent,” I informed the angel. “I’ve got a different candidate this time. I’ll vote for yours if you vote for mine.”

  Which sounded an awful lot like “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” I would have totally been on board with that. Rafi was smoking hot, and I’ll bet he was incredible in the sack. Unlike the other angels, he was pretty close to the edge of chaos, and I got the feeling he didn’t skimp when it came to the sexual organs of his corporeal form.

  “Sam, I love you like a sister, but we can’t approve a demon as a member of the Ruling Council.”

  Loved me like a sister. Spoil sport.

  “I was a demon when I was first on the Ruling Council,” I countered. “Leathery wings and all. So don’t give me the ‘no demons’ routine.”

  “You had the sword of the Iblis.” He picked up the giant bottle of Fireball and poured two more shots. Actually they were more like tumblers than shot glasses. No wonder I was drunk. “Anyone who is the Iblis has a position on the Ruling Council.”

  “So I could have been a donkey with the sword in my mouth, and I would have been on the Council?”

  “Yep.” He handed me the “shot glass” of Fireball. “And I’m thinking it would be really funny for you to show up at the next Council meeting as a donkey with the sword clenched in your teeth.”

  We clinked glasses and downed the liquor. “I’ll take it under advisement.”

  That was a Gabe-ism. And my dour imitation of his brother nearly had Rafi blowing cinnamon whisky out of his nose.

  “So who is this angel you’re putting forward for a Ruling Council spot?” I asked once we’d downed a few more shots. “Which choir is she or he in?”

  I assumed the angel was in his own, but Rafi was almost as tricky as I was when it came to these things.

  “She’s unaffiliated with any choir at this time, which I think makes her an ideal, impartial candidate.” He gave me one of those knowing, inscrutable looks that suddenly reminded me of his eldest brother. “She’ll be more willing to vote with you than any of the others aside from me. I’m not saying she’ll be in lockstep with your crazy ideas, but she won’t be as rigid as Gabe.”

  “Eight tons of hardened steel aren’t as rigid as Gabe,” I told him. I got a weird feeling from Rafi, that maybe he was personally involved with this angel. He was trying to hide it, trying to be all nonchalant and blasé, but either he and this angel had a past, or they had a present. Which was a bummer since Rafi was my most-eligible-bachelor right now at Infernal Mates. I’d taken to texting pictures of him along with a list of his attributes to demons I thought might be suitable matches, and had been compiling a list of possible matches. Guess I’d need to put that on hold and set Gabe up with someone instead. They’d have to be really strong, and not take no for an answer though, because that angel wasn’t gonna go down easy.

  “Can I count on your vote?” Rafi asked.

  “Maybe. Can I count on yours?”

  “Yep. I’m down for some quid-pro-quo action here. Although we’re both going to fail. Gabe will vote against us. Michael will be the swing vote, and he doesn’t always agree with you, no matter how big of a tantrum you throw.”

  My beloved was less likely to agree with me since I’d gotten the entire angelic host banished from Aaru. He was also grumpy because the Elf Island thing was more work than he’d originally expected. Elves kept escaping, and the job placement contractor had been taking kickbacks and bribes. I smiled at the thought. Humans. It was almost like they were my very
own children.

  He would most definitely vote no on my choice. So I needed additional votes on my side. This candidate of Rafi’s was hopefully a step in the right direction, but I needed one more vote to be positive of getting my agenda, and my candidate, approved.

  “We need to have someone temporarily take Uriel’s spot,” I told Rafi. “That last guy, whatever the fuck his name was, sucked. We need someone who will be on our side.”

  Rafael pushed his tumbler aside and just took a swig from the bottle. “Yeah. Good luck with that. You really are crazy if you think we’re going to get three of our candidates onboard.”

  Suddenly I had an idea. There was someone who I thought I could get past Gabe and Gregory. If I could get her in one of the two openings, then vote Rafi’s candidate in for the other, I could slip my own special candidate in as a temporary placeholder for Uri. It was perfect.

  “I’ve got a plan.” I told Rafi. “The best plan ever. Brilliant. Yuge. Bigly. This plan is a winner.”

  Rafi eyed me and took another drink of the Fireball. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. If this works, we’ll be able to fill all three spots, and you guys won’t be spending half the meetings with your wings in a knot over how many are on the Council.”

  And I’d have five, possibly six if Gregory was in a good mood, voting my way.

  Rafi waved the bottle at me. “Go on. I’ll just drink more of this stuff while you tell me this brilliant bigly plan. Hopefully I’ll be drunk enough that it will actually sound brilliant. And bigly.”

  “You suggest that we vote in a new member on the Council, but express concerns because we can’t have just anyone being exposed to all this confidential shit we discuss. Suggest someone from Gabriel’s choir, and flatter the heck out of him. Say his choir is the most reasoned, balanced, enlightened, almost-divine, of all the angels, that of all the rebels, very few were from his choir, because it was so well organized and managed, and that you had no doubt that Gabe’s influence would ensure secrecy if we chose someone from his choir.”

  “He’s not stupid, you know,” Rafi interrupted. “He’ll never believe all that blatant flattery, especially from me.”

  “Well, then tone it down a bit. You know him better than I do. You’ve been his brother for billions of years. Just make it convincing.”

  “He’ll pick someone horrible,” Rafi said. “We won’t be any better off. In fact, we’ll be worse off because there’d be three of them to vote against us. We’ll never get our candidates on the Council.”

  “Very few of Gabe’s choir have been down here among the humans at all. I’ll guide the conversation to suggest that we need someone who truly understands humans as well as angels. Someone who has proven themselves as being able to weigh human interests in any proposed rulings. Someone who has had experience with angels, humans, and demons.”

  “Someone who has served as part of the Grigori,” Raphael interjected. He wasn’t slow, that angel. No, not one bit.

  “Exactly.”

  Rafi’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Asta. She’s the only one from the first choir who has been a member of the Grigori in the last few hundred years.”

  “Exactly.”

  “She’s an Angel of Order. Gabe adores her like she was his own child. She’s strict and stern, but also is known to be fair and compassionate.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And, although it is a pretty well-kept secret, she’s in love with your foster brother. Door? Something like that.”

  “Dar. They live together. They’re fucking like dogs in heat.” I did the index-finger-in-the-finger-circle-hole as a visual illustration.

  Raphael smirked. “Naughty girl.”

  “Oh, more naughty than you’d ever imagine. They’re not just exchanging bodily fluids; they’re exchanging other things as well.”

  “Like their hearts and souls,” Rafi teased. “Human-style wedding rings? Collections of velvet kitten paintings?”

  “Let’s just say there has been angelic offspring since the banishment.”

  Raphael froze, Fireball bottle halfway to his mouth. Then he slowly lowered it. “What do you mean?”

  “Angel and demon and baby makes three.” I did the finger-in-the-hole thing again.

  He relaxed. “You mean Asta and Door have created?”

  “Well yeah. Duh. Who the heck did you think I meant?”

  He tensed again. “No one. No one at all. Wow. That’s cool. A baby. Is it of Order or Chaos?”

  I’ve been accused of being a bit slow sometimes, but this wasn’t one of those occasions. “Order,” I said, watching him carefully.”

  He smiled. “Cute. Do we get to meet the little bugger?”

  “Asta may have to bring her to Ruling Council meetings if Dar’s busy and they can’t get a sitter. I’ve got a dwarf lined up for them, but he doesn’t get here for a few months yet. Until then, they’re kinda pulling their hair out. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a sitter nowadays? And this angel baby is just as much of a pain in the ass as a demon child. She melted a babysitter’s cell phone, and Asta and Dar came home one night to find that she’d locked one in the oven. The sitter nearly suffocated.”

  Raphael snorted. “Angel-young aren’t easy. Although it would go smoother if they were able to raise her up in Aaru. Poor little thing. The humans must be driving her nuts with all of their rule-breaking and immoral behavior.”

  Actually I was pretty sure Dar was driving his daughter nuts with all of his rule-breaking and immoral behavior. Oh well, not my problem.

  “Here’s the deal,” I told him. “Step one: we get Asta on board. As of now only Dar, Asta, you, me, your eldest brother, a dwarf, and a succubus know about the baby, so Gabe will be clueless. The baby is key, though. Asta isn’t going to want to be tossed into Hel, or deemed Fallen for breaking the rules, so we can blackmail her into voting our way.”

  Raphael’s eyebrows shot up. “And how long have you known us? You seriously think you’re going to be able to blackmail an Angel of Order?”

  “Uhhh, yeah. Have you ever had a kid? Do you have any idea what human parents do to protect their children? Angels are going to be ten times as susceptible to blackmail. Asta’s totally gonna be my bitch.”

  Rafi had gotten this dreamy, faraway look at the when I’d asked, quite rhetorically, if he’d ever had a kid. A tiny smile curled up one corner of his mouth. “Have you ever created? I mean, I know demons do with other demons, so I’m sure you have.”

  My mind immediately went back to Ahriman’s dungeon. The pain. The fear. The desperation. My kitchen vanished and suddenly I was shivering in terror, waiting for the moment when he’d come back. I’d had to give him my personal energy, a portion of my spirit-self. He’d formed an offspring with me, only to kill it because it wasn’t what he wanted. And he’d taken it out on me.

  He’d murdered my child, before it had a chance to take its first breath. I’d never really thought of it before, had locked all of that down deep inside me with the rest of the experience, but now it came roaring back with the pain and the fear.

  Rafi was giving me a concerned stare. “You okay? I didn’t mean to pry. If you—”

  “No. I mean yes, but no. I’ve never created, and I never will.” I scrambled for a reasonable explanation. “I’m a devouring spirit. It would be dangerous for anyone to sire, or create, with me.”

  The expression on Rafi’s face was bringing me really close to tears. And I hated tears.

  “You wouldn’t devour Michael. I mean, I’m pretty sure you couldn’t even if you tried, but I don’t think you would even try. I see how you look at him, how you are with him. You love him as much as he loves you. And I think you guys would create an amazing angel together.”

  The fear threatened to overwhelm me. “No. I don’t want to create. I don’t even like babies, or demon young, or probably even angel young. That baby of Dar and Asta’s is a little terror. It’s not my thing.”

  He stared at me for a lon
g moment. “Well I do. I want to create. I can’t wait for the chance to contribute a portion of my spirit-self, and help a young angel grow to its potential.”

  “Well, you’ll need to hook up with a demon for that because this angel you’re smooching with right now, whoever it is, isn’t gonna be able to give you babies.”

  He froze again. “I…I mean in the future. Not right now.”

  “I’ve got a list of eligible demons,” I told him. “I think they’re very compatible, and they’re interested.”

  “No!” He jerked as he said it, nearly sloshing his Fireball out of the glass. “No, I’m fine. I don’t need you to set me up with any demons. I’m not…available.”

  Ah, a jealous angel lover. I totally understood. Even we demons occasionally wanted an exclusive contract with another. Still, if he truly wanted to create, he’d need to either reconsider, or speak to his angel lover about a breeding incident outside of their relationship.

  “Okay, okay,” I reassured him. “It’s all good. No problem. Let me know when, or if, you’re ever interested.”

  “Never.” Rafi poured us another two shots as I contemplated the definitive nature of his statement. “So step one: I orchestrate the suggestion of Asta as a member of the Council. Then once she’s confirmed, we’ll add my candidate. That’s step two.”

  “Step three: vote my candidate in as a placeholder for Uri.” I picked up the glass and threw down the cinnamon whisky. “And bam! Between the two of use, we’ll have locked down five of seven votes on the Ruling Council.”

  Rafi laughed. “Yeah. I’m warning you now that Asta may not always vote your way, regardless of your blackmail. Even I don’t always vote your way.”