The Dark God's Bride : Book 2

  Book two of

  The Dark God’s Bride

  Dahlia Lu

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2012 Dahlia Lu

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form.

  An ancient god on a destructive path of vengeance…

  Imprisoned by the Archangel Lucifer ages ago, Summit, the Dark God, wanted nothing less than equivalent retribution. After breaking free and successfully retaining some splintered shards of his sanity, Summit set out to confront Lucifer. The Archangel was nowhere to be found. He has, however, left behind his most coveted mortal bride. The Dark God stormed into Hell to capture Lucifer’s one and only weakness, but inadvertently abducted the wrong female - his own.

  A reluctant heroine…

  As a mortal raised among the demons inside a floating castle in Hell, Amara’s life is not exactly what you would call normal. When she finds herself abducted by a half-mad god, who mistook her for the woman who brought her up, Amara chooses to hide her identity to protect her foster mother at the risk of her own life.

  Prologue

  Nala stared at her reflection from the surface of the bathwater and saw a face far inferior to her own. The pair of pale green eyes that had brought great kingdoms to their knees had become a rich earthy brown. The brilliant platinum hair that had won the hearts of the European courts turned to the color of ripe wheat. Strangely, her new mundane appearance pleased her. Her beauty, a curse to every man who had ever crossed her path, had been an equal burden to her.

  The first few centuries of her life, she had been no stronger than any other mortal women. She was helpless to those who wished to claim her for their own. They were the most powerful and influential men of their time, and they were deeply in love with her.

  It was the same pattern over and over again. They spent their time and efforts in courting her. They presented her the most precious gifts they could find and dispatched armies to defend her from other men who had fell victim to her charms. Their love exceeded physical possession. They wanted her requited love. They wanted the impossible.

  Years passed, and eventually they grew frustrated with her unwavering heart. They attempted everything they could think of only to come to the realization that her heart had already belonged to another man. Unreachable. Unattainable.

  There were times she had tried to love them back, but it had always been far beyond her capability. She felt nothing for them. It drove them mad with jealousy and it almost always ended the same way – they would murder her in a fit of rage and, occasionally, turn the sword on themselves.

  Most of her life had been spent in one gilded cage or another. It was only when the demons pledged their loyalty to her was she safe from reliving the wretched nightmare of being another’s possession.

  She only ever wanted to belong to one person, and she wanted him to be hers as well. It was a seemingly simple wish. Almost every woman she’d ever encountered wanted the same thing. The only difference was that the man she loved would forever reject her.

  She dreaded the idea of deceiving him… but without deception, the man she loves would not even let her come close to him. He was disgusted with her because her existence itself was an abomination. The lightest touch revolted him. He couldn’t even stand being in the same room with her for longer than a minute’s time.

  Because she was vile.

  Because she was dirty.

  Because she was unworthy of him.

  Nala continued to scrub her skin vigorously with the rough sponge in her hand. She scrubbed harder and harder until the surface reddened and become irritated. Still not clean enough. Never clean enough. She squeezed more soap into the sponge and repeated.

  Noctiam snatched the sponge from her hand when he couldn’t stand to watch her any longer. “Stop that!” he shouted at her. “Your skin won’t heal like it used to. You’re mortal now.”

  “What do I do?” she asked him. “I’m so dirty. If I don’t scrub, then–”

  “For goodness’ sake!” Noctiam agitatedly tossed the sponge aside. He knelt beside the bathtub and looked into her eyes. He controlled his voice, “You are fine, Nala.”

  “Do you think it’s okay if I use bleach?”

  He groaned. “No bleach. Your body is very delicate now. It cannot repair itself like it used to. If you want to live longer, then don’t cause any unnecessary harm to it.”

  He reached for the bottles of potions on the sink and poured them into the bathwater one by one. “You will have to come back to me every full moon so I can use magic and potions to prevent your body from decaying. If you feel unwell at any given time, you must come back to me. Do you understand me, Nala?”

  She nodded. “I understand.”

  His hands were trembling when he poured in the last bottle.

  “I also understand that you are angry with me.”

  “Of course I’m angry!” He bellowed. “You’re mortal! Let me rephrase that: You are a goddamned corpse, existing on borrowed time!”

  She gave a careless shrug. “At least I survived the extraction.”

  “Survived?” He scoffed. “You’ll die in three or four years. What’s the fucking difference?”

  “The difference is that I will be happy…” her voice turned doubtful. “Will be he able to recognize me like this?”

  “No one will recognize you for what you are,” Noctiam assured her. A sorrowful look in his eyes, he said, “I still don’t believe what you’ve made me do.”

  Nala recalled what happened only hours earlier. Her eyes flashed opened. Her lungs inhaled their first deep breath in many months.

  Noctiam was looking down at her, his fingers gently stroking her hairline. A smile of relief cracked on his miserable face. There was no doubt in her mind that he had never taken his eyes off her.

  “I was so worried…” he whispered to her. He leaned his head back and laughed himself to tears. “I thought you’d never wake up. I didn’t know what I was going to do without you, Nala.”

  Of all of her deaths, never had one been more agonizing. Of all of her resurrections, none had ever made her felt so… disconnected. She didn’t feel like herself. She wasn’t herself. She hadn’t felt this weak since she’d first hatched from her egg.

  Good, she thought. Her other half despised everything about her. The more of herself she killed off, the better.

  After the worry then the relief, Noctiam turned to fury. Nala could tell he was trying hard to repress it.

  A chuckle escaped her.

  “How can you laugh at a time like this?”

  Her answer, “Because I can. Say, what will happen to me after my time runs out?”

  “Your body will rot and you will die. Permanently. Are you regretting yet? Please say you are, because there is a chance I can reverse this, but only if you do it now. Your chance of survival will get slimmer the longer you wait.”

  “I never regret,” she said, her voice was more determined than even the most hardened businessman. “Like the mortals say, this is my final act.”

  “You will lose either way. You know that, right?”

  “I have been fighting a losing battle all along. I know that. I won’t delude myself by denying it.”

  “Then stop fighting and take a clear look at everything around you! Find another purpose. Try to love a man who is capable of loving you back. It doesn’t have to be me. I want you to stop torturing yourself!”

  “You think I haven’t tried? I am Trent and he is me. I will always be his shadow and he will always be the one who has the eternal grip on me. That will never change.”

&nbs
p; Noctiam closed his eyes and sighed. “You are incorrigible and incurable.”

  He was right. She could live on forever without her other half, only she didn’t want to. “Love is the thing that corrodes the mind and pushes it to do the unimaginable. Love is the thorns that barbed into your flesh and make you bleed a slow torturous death. Love is the prison that confines you to the unending darkness that absorbs chunks of your sanity with each fleeting second. Love is an immortal’s worst nightmare.” A smile curled up her lips. “I am about to wake up.”

  He sighed, troubled. “Fine, I won’t argue with you anymore. Since you’ve made it this far, what is the next step in your plan?”

  “Well,” her eyes wandered to a corner in the ceiling. “I still need you to do one more thing for me.”

  “Do tell,” he urged her on.

  She smiled mischievously. “Are you good at acting?”

  He knitted his brows. “What do you mean?”

  “You see, I am a very jealous person.”

  “Go on.”

  “If another female got near Trent, I would not stand for it.”

  “Okay…?”

  “Trent knew that. So in order for him to believe I am to be who I claim to be… there has to be another Nala.”

  He stared at her, half-guessing her plan. “You want me to disguise as you, and try to kill you so it would look convincing?”

  She nodded. “I admit that this is new low for me, but there is no way around it. I don’t have a decade to gain his trust. I have days.”

  “You’re too cunning for your own good.”

  “I’ve been doing this for a long time. By ‘this’ I mean the plotting thing. With Trent’s righteous personality, which I detest, his conscience won’t let another get hurt because of him. The human side of him won’t allow it. His heart is bound to the human world and that will forever be his weakness. He will protect the helpless damsel. He will keep her safe from his crazy, bitchy, overly jealous other half. And in order for him to keep her safe, he will have to keep her close.”

  “That’s not a nice thing to say about yourself.”

  “I state the obvious.”

  “That aside, how are you going to seduce him? He doesn’t let anyone get close to him, especially a woman.”

  “I am not any woman, Noctiam. I am his other half. Who knows him better than me? Deep down, there is only one thing that we both truly desire.”

  “Fine,” Noctiam reluctantly agreed. “But if your plan should fail, you will take back your core.”

  “Sometimes, just looking at him pained me,” she confessed. “He is constantly struggling with two halves that were never meant to be. I wonder which will prevail in the end.”

  Chapter One

  Ever since Nala had gone missing, the demons had been restless. They searched high and low at every corner of the earth, but they couldn’t find any traces of her. It was as if she’d evaporated into thin air. Even Fai grew weary by the day without his master. Everyone was getting too easily agitated – so much so that Amara decided it wasn’t safe to stay where she was at anymore.

  Besides, the fall semester was starting in a few days. She had Damian teleport her back home.

  Amara learned quite a few things while she was staying at the Demon’s palace. As it turned out, there are two factions of demons. The first faction, the true demons, was comprised of the original fallen angels, who reside in the realm of Hell. They care very little about things outside of their realm. They chose to follow Trent. The demons belonging to the second faction were earthbound demons of unknown origin. These demons pledged their loyalty to Nala. Amara wondered what kind of impact her disappearance would have on the two demon factions.

  As soon as Amara returned to her apartment, she examined her apartment like she would the scene of a crime. The clues were obvious and they were all there: dim lights, chick flick movies, used tissues, and tubs of empty ice cream on the coffee table. Lizzie looked a mess on the couch with her microfiber throw.

  So Robert didn’t work out, Amara thought.

  She sank down to the sofa next to her friend. Lizzie curled up like a child and leaned on her. They watched another four or five chick flick movies before they fell asleep together.

  The first day of the semester, Amara got asked out again by the same persistent guy. He wasn’t six foot five and he couldn’t freeze time, but he was a decent looking man with an awfully charming personality. If she hadn’t been so used to looking at ethereally beautiful demons, he would have been considered very handsome. Amara thought to herself, why not give this dating thing a try?

  Camden was six foot even with light brown hair and eyes. He was the perfect height because she was only five foot three. They actually looked like a couple walking side by side.

  Amara learned that Camden was attending his last year of medical school and would be graduating in May. He knew how to compliment a woman and how to apologize when he recognized his own mistake. And, most importantly, he treats her like a real human being! Amara wondered why she hadn’t done this sooner.

  “That steak hits the spot,” Amara said contentedly, leaning back against the chair. “You tossed a mean salad, Camden. It beats any restaurant I’ve ever been to. Where did you learn to cook like this?”

  “Well, I’ve been on my own for a while, so it’s a case of learn to cook or starve. Ready for dessert?”

  “Oh!” Her hands flew to her heart. “My fatal weakness!”

  Camden went to the kitchen and returned minutes later with two servings of tiramisu dusted with cocoa powder and white chocolate shavings. At her first bite, she moaned with pleasure.

  “Oh wow! Did you really make this?”

  He leaned in closer to her and whispered. “No, actually. It’s from the bakery down the street.”

  She giggled. “Your secret is safe with me. But I’m so full, I don’t know if I can eat any more…”

  “I bought extras so you can take them home with you later.”

  She stared at him in appreciation. “I have one question. I mean, you’re such a great guy. Why did you waste two and a half years asking me out?”

  He stared back at her with a wan smile. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

  Amara narrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”

  He went silent for a minute. “Two and a half years ago, I hit a dead end. I lost my family to a tragic car accident and I fell into depression. My girlfriend at the time broke up with me. My grades suffered and I was at a point in my life where I couldn’t see the future. I thought about doing a really stupid thing and… you saved me, Amara. You made me see that it wasn’t the end of the world. Because of your encouragements, I pulled myself together and picked up my life where I’d left off. I owe everything to you.”

  “Oh no… you lost everyone in your family?”

  “Fortunately, not everyone. I still have an older brother. He’s the head detective at the downtown police department.”

  “Wait a minute…” Amara searched her memories. “If you were one of my clients, then how come I don’t recognize you?”

  A hand rubbed his chin. “Back when I first met you, I hadn’t shaved for weeks.”

  “Were you the hobo with the unkempt beard and a Boston cap?”

  He smiled and nodded. “One and the same.”

  “Well… that’s a bit stalker-ish.” He suddenly looked flustered… “I’m just kidding with you,” she laughed.

  “So when you agreed to give this a try, it blew me away. I didn’t believe it at first, but here we are.”

  “Yes…” Her eyes nervously wandered around the apartment. She wasn’t sure of what his expectations would be at the end of the day. “So look, I know I agreed to have dinner at your place, but I didn’t…”

  “I understand perfectly,” he voiced over her. “I want you to be comfortable with your own pace. Just having dinner with you is more than I could have hoped for.”

  “Really?”

  “I want you
to get to know me.”

  Forget human being, I feel like a woman!

  After dessert, they chatted a little more, and then he drove her home. It rained mid-way, so he took off his jacket to shelter her and escorted her from the car to the apartment’s porch. He gave her a light peck on the cheek at the door and made sure she made it safely inside. A girl could definitely get used to this.

  Trent absently walked down the street, absorbed in his thoughts.

  It’d been ninety seven days, the longest he’d ever gone without seeing Nala. He and Nala had a special connection. He’d always been able to sense her presence, but not lately. He had been on edge since he felt that eerie disconnection followed by a pain he had nothing else to compare to. Living as long as he had, he’d never encountered anything close to the agony of that intensity. That moment, he knew for sure something had happened to Nala. He needed to go to her… to save her…

  He had the compulsive urge to find her, only he did not know where she was or how to get to her. It was as if she’d evaporated from the face of the earth.

  Panic gripped his soul.

  He wandered the streets like a madman, step by step, alley by alley, searching for his other half. She was in trouble and he wasn’t able to help. His body had a mind of its own, driven by the need to feel her close – the need to know she was safe. Some hours later, the pain bested him. He collapsed in some godforsaken alleyway.

  The last image he had of her had his heart wrenched in painful throbs. She’d come to him asking for a few minutes of comfort to help her cope with the pain. He turned her away, and the look on her face at that time haunted him every minute of the day. His blunt rejection brought her to tears.

  Nala! Crying!

  Nala never cried. That was a fact. He’d saved her from situations that would have brought tears to the bravest of men, but Nala shook it off like nothing ever happened. She been a victim of countless crimes of passion, and a few witch hunts, but Nala had never shed a tear or cried for help, even when she was being burned at the stake. Emotionally, she was the stronger out of the two of them. He’d assumed she took after his father, like people often remarked.