Pandora's Box - Eve Newton Page 0,2

that a mark from his hand would stay on my skin, though? That is the burning question, pardon the pun.

After he marked me back, he didn’t seem all that pissed about it. If anything, he seemed pleased that we had done this to each other.

I sigh as I don’t want to think too deeply about it. He is probably just glad to have been able to reinforce his position as the Alpha male around here. It probably doesn’t have anything to do with his parting words to me, which if I think about too much, will only make me regret it.

“Damn you,” I mutter, wishing that he wasn’t a Demon and that I could actually damn him. “You are going to hurt me, aren’t you?”

I turn from the mirror and step into the shower, turning on the jets full blast and scorching hot. The bathroom steams up quickly, but I don’t feel the heat on my skin.

Cold? Now that’s a different story and if Shax had anything to do with this, I will kick his ass back down here so fast his head will spin. Then, I’ll chain him up in the dungeon so that he can never leave again and fuck with my domain.

If he didn’t have anything to do with it, then…I sigh again. “Where are you, bro? I fucking need you.”

I place my head on the tiles for a brief moment and then draw in a deep breath. I straighten up, clean off. When I step out of the shower minutes later, I’m back to my old self and, picking up Babe, I stride forward, ready to fix this problem the only way I know how, by being a ruthless badass with the power of Hell on my side.

I mean…how hard can it be?

Chapter 2

Annabelle

I flame into the Dining Hall to see all of my males assembled around the huge table, including Gregory. He gives me a tentative smile, which I return with a confident beam. It immediately relaxes him. There is no doubt that being around these Demons without me must be unnerving for him. He is handling it well, although Devlin appears to be keeping an eye on him. As in, he is taking more than a passing interest in my human. I wonder if it delves past his Necromancer part onto a sexier level.

I tingle in all the right places at that thought.

I cast a glance over Killian, who has taken it upon himself to sit at the head of the table, and everyone else has joined him up there. I sneer at him. Who the fuck does he think he is?

I stalk down the twenty-seater to the other head and sit down. I slam Babe down on the table, calling this meeting to order. I wait while the males scramble to join me on the other side. Killian gives me a smirk to let me know that he did it on purpose to see what I would do.

I kick out the chair to my right and he takes it, sitting his massive frame down. Elijah sits on my left, Aleister next to him. Gregory is next to Aleister with Devlin opposite him, his feet on the table. Drescal, always having to be the one who outshines them all, stands next to me, his hand on the back of my chair. I smile up at him and he bends to kiss my forehead.

“Still there?” he murmurs.

“Yep,” I say, then press my lips together as I look back at the males.

The flash of danger in his eyes was unmistakable.

I snap my fingers and Roberta appears, looking flustered and perplexed, her hair a mess all over her head and her light gray, elasticated-waist skirt askew from having burst through space and time against her will.

I give her an ingratiating smile. “Roberta. Have you seen the outside?”

“I have, Your Majesty,” she clips out, recovering with speed. “With all due respect, Ma’am…what the fuck?”

I snort. “Indeed. I have no idea. Has anything like this happened before at all in the history of Hell?”

She shakes her head immediately.

“Wait!” Drescal interjects. “What’s happened?”

“Go and see,” I reply, waving my hand at them.

All the males that can transport themselves outside go, leaving me and Gregory looking at each other awkwardly, with Killian still seated as he already knows about our predicament.

Roberta stands there silently, for once showing a bit of respect. Maybe she has been stunned into supplication by the snow.

I snicker to myself, receiving odd looks from the three of