Tatter Fall: His Mortal Demoness, #1

By Andrea B. Lamoureux

She's a half-mortal demoness. He's a fallen angel. Their love was doomed from the start.

 

Vivika Lovell's mother, the demon queen of the underworld, forbids Vivika from learning about her mortal father's side of the family. But Viv is bored of torturing condemned souls, and the mortal world has always interested her. When she discovers she only has one living mortal relative left, she defies her mother. No matter the cost.

Elias has just lost his wings. He can get them back, but only if he can make two mortals fall in love without the use of his powers. The fallen angel mistakingly expects it to be an easy task…until he crosses paths with the radiant Vivika. Little does he know, she's about to make his existence so much more complicated.

 

Can Elias resist the demoness's temptations? Or will he risk winning his wings back to sate his own desire?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrea B. Lamoureux
• Release date: Aug 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989462102

Book preview

Prologue

When it comes to gods and demons, sometimes the line between good and evil is thin.

Causarius’s boots fell heavily on the damp soil as he trod down an alley lined with tall, worn brick buildings.

All the alleys in Whitechapel looked similar. Unwanted. Shoved under the carpet while the rest of London’s society tried to forget their existence; a perfect hunting ground for a demon like Causarius.

He scratched the skin beneath the sleeve of his dark coat. He didn’t like being stuffed inside a human body. It was constricting, but he needed to wear the disguise a little longer.

A woman’s laugh stole his attention as she swung open the backdoor of one of the buildings.

Only one type of woman would set foot here at this time of night. Her gaudily designed dress, which accentuated her bosom spilling out at the top, reiterated her reason for being here.

Perfect.

She was exactly the type of target he needed.

Causarius stepped out into the flickering light cast by the dusty gas lamp behind him. Excuse me, miss. I require your services on this lonely eve.

The scandalous woman gave him a once-over. I’m done for the night. Find another woman ta drown yer lust with, she replied in her low-class tongue.

He pinched a silver coin between his thumb and forefinger, holding it up for her to see. I only wish for one kiss.

She squinted at it, revealing the fine lines hiding beneath her cosmetic powder. "A crown for a kiss? What kind o’ game are ya playin’, sir?"

No game. One kiss, and the coin is yours.

The whore with fading youth chuckled and stepped closer. Her strong perfume almost hid the odor of sweat.

A stray dog’s barks bounced off the buildings around the pair as she snatched the coin from him and leaned in.

The demon in the human suit opened his mouth and accepted the kiss. He released his power upon her as their lips locked. The sickly cloud of pestilence escaped his throat and entered her body.

The woman, unaware of the damage being done to her, wrapped her hands around his neck and sank deeper into the kiss, sucking on his mouth as though it were a juicy plum.

He broke the kiss, wisps of green escaping from his mouth before he closed his lips and leashed his power.

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand and coughed.

His power had already dug its claws into her.

Electric light stung his back. Causarius winced, turning around to face his foe. That sensation could only mean one thing.

The woman released a blood-curdling scream and bolted down the alley, rounding a corner before he could thank her for the kiss. Good. She’d take the disease and spread it to everyone in her path. Some of those she’d infect would be wicked. Their souls would fall to the underworld, allowing his queen and her demons to feast.

Causarius tipped his top hat to the newcomer, an angel sent to stop him.

You—you should be dead... injured, at least! the angel with silver wings wearing white skin-tight leathers exclaimed.

He had no answer for her. His secret, the half-demon half-mortal blood running through his veins, made him immune to the angel seeking to end his life.

She stretched out her wings, pale as a dove’s, and tried again. A bolt of lightning left her palm and hit him where his heart would be, if he had one.

The demon reached back and ran his fingers across sticky blood bubbling from the wound on the top of his back; the only damage the angel’s magic had left. A blow like that would’ve once taken him out of the game. Thanks to the princess’s blood, he only needed to worry about patching up the human skin before he returned to Earth again.

He set a smiling gaze back on the beauty with golden hair and sky-blue eyes. Not this time.

Chapter 1

Ziralel watched the soul squirm as her mother, the demon queen, dug her obsidian claws deeper into the once-murderer’s flesh to hold him in place.

The soul screamed as though he still lived and could feel every measure of pain given to him.

It wasn’t his true flesh. He’d lost his mortal body when he’d perished. Now, it lay somewhere decaying in the ground above Orcus, the underworld Tartara ruled. No, the flesh she punctured with her sharp grasp was a product of the soul’s imagination. But it was as real to her as it was to him.

The demon queen snapped her fingers and his screams turned to whispers. She scoffed at the glittering jewels and metals in her daughter’s cave, trinkets from the mortal realm. She shook her head. I’ll never understand your fondness for such useless garbage.

I happen to like the little pieces I’ve collected from the mortal world. Ziralel pushed herself up from her dugout bed in the corner as her mother threw the soul at her feet. She could tell he would’ve been tall and bulky as a human, but now he curled himself into a ball, as though trying to disappear.

This one has done enough evil to suffer the worst types of torture, her mother said, tucking a dark lock behind her pointed red ear. You left my womb one hundred mortal years ago, so I offer him to you. His fear shall taste delicious. She ran her tongue over her too-white fangs.

Ziralel bowed, keeping her gaze on her mother’s crimson flesh. Thank you, Mother. She straightened. I will ensure he endures an unbearable amount of pain and suffering, but, seeing as how today is special, would you consider giving me one more gift?

Tartara raised her chin, her twin horns reaching toward the ceiling. What else would you ask for?

My father’s name.

Tartara stretched out her black feathered wings, identical to her daughter’s. We’ve had this discussion before. You will never know your mortal family name. Put it from your mind, forever. The next time you ask, I’ll have you locked in chains with some of the other demons who’ve defied me.

Ziralel’s gaze fell to the soul shaking on the dirt floor. She hadn’t asked her mother to give her the name in decades. She thought this time might be different, that she’d earned the truth.

She nodded to herself before wrapping a hand around the back of the soul’s neck and wrenching him upward. Thank you for the gift, Mother.

The demon queen, who only wore thin strips of leather over her crimson skin, snapped her fingers once more, giving the soul his voice back before she turned and swept from the room.

The queen’s only daughter realized her mother would never give up her father’s name. She didn’t want her to seek out the mortal family she knew nothing about. She feared losing Ziralel to the mortal world. Not because she loved her, but because she needed her blood to make high status demons immune to angels’ magic.

It was true her mother’s blood, along with hers, allowed demons the ability to disguise themselves as humans. But Ziralel’s blood alone held the power to ensure the angels couldn’t harm them while they were on their missions above ground. It was her mortal side that made her blood special. The only catch? Its power was temporary.

She touched the spot on her arm where the slimy leeches attached themselves to on occasion. The foul creatures would swell, keeping her blood fresh until they were cut open by the demons needing immunity. She dreaded the blood feeding. Losing a bit of her life force made her feel weak, and being a host to those parasites was degrading in a way that made her want to curl up and die.

The male soul cried out as she squeezed his neck harder. Please! Send me to oblivion. I know I’ve sinned. Snuff me from existence.

Oh, I don’t think so. She dragged him from her cave and followed the path through the endless cold, stone landscape. The only part about Orcus that wasn’t freezing was the eternal blue flames of Orcus Fire used to keep the souls of the damned.

Screams and the lingering scent of coppery blood grew stronger as Ziralel neared one of the many caves designated for torture. She entered the carved out circular space, joining half a dozen other demons already licking up the fear of the sinners doomed to the underworld.

She found an empty space and slammed the murderer’s soul up against the jagged stone wall.

He whimpered, his head down, refusing to meet her eyes.

She could feel them on his spiritual flesh. The numerous victims he’d claimed with an axe while they slept peacefully in their beds. Inhaling deep, she absorbed the fear rolling off him, letting it sate her hunger.

Ziralel snapped one of his fingers, earning her a guttural cry of agony.

Tapping her sharpened claws on the stone wall, she waited for his cries to turn to whimpers before she broke his wrist.

He was powerless here.

The soul’s screams joined the others’ around them. A chorus of suffering. Music to a demon’s ears.

Hurts, doesn’t it? she asked with a pout as she trailed a clawed fingernail down the length of his inner arm. Blood seeped from the perfect line, wetting his skin.

Moving on to his bare chest, Ziralel tore it open and let him gape at his own beating heart.

The soul shook uncontrollably. Sweat beaded on his wrinkled forehead.

She remembered when she’d delighted on the pain of wretched souls. She’d bathed in their blood, drunk their fear... thousands of times.

But she remained void of joy as she pulled his innards from his body, little by little. She didn’t know when she’d become so bored of her purpose, but she suspected it was long ago. Time means nothing when you’re immortal.

She grabbed onto his protruding yellowy ribcage and pulled until he tore in two, finishing the job and sending the murderer back to the River of Souls, where he’d wait to be tortured again... and again... and again.

She stepped out of the torture cave and headed for one of the gates that would take her to the mortal world. She may not have her family name, but that wouldn’t stop her from spending time on Earth, a world she found much more interesting.

Ziralel, wait, a gruff voice called.

She slowed to let the lesser demon catch up to her. What is it, Urlak?

The short, stubby demon, covered in spikes, joined her side. I has information you’ll be interested in, he said through the mouth on his tiny head while the gaping maw lined with teeth in his belly huffed in the frigid air.

Out with it, then, she demanded.

He stopped walking. I not be givin’ it up for free.

She paused in her tracks and faced him. What makes you think I want this information?

Queen Tartara be in a mood after seein’ you. Told me you asked about your father again, she did. But I know his name, I do. And I’ll tell you it for a price.

Her jaw nearly dropping, she pulled him farther away from the torture cave and into privacy. You’d betray my mother? Why? Tartara would gut him before ending his existence and then wear his bones as a belt if she found out... when she found out. You’ve been at her side since the beginning.

Urlak clenched his three talons together. She treats me like the dirt on her hoof after all I’s done for her. I be sick of it. I’ll prove to her I be more than a lesser demon.

Ziralel blinked, unable to believe her luck. She would’ve never guessed he’d give up the information she sought. What do you want?

Your blood. I been a lesser demon too long. I want to visit the mortal realm.

She scoffed. Urlak in the mortal realm... He’d cause havoc, surely.

He mistook her silence for hesitation. You only has one livin’ family member left on Earth. Time be running out, yes, it be, he taunted.

She froze as fear sank its sharp teeth into her. Fear that if her mortal bloodline came to an end, the part of her that made her different from her mother’s kind would be severed. Would she become like them? Soulless? Driven only by hunger?

How do you know that? Ziralel asked.

The demon queen talks. Thinks my ears don’t matter.

Urlak leaving the underworld wasn’t her problem. If his tiny brain thought he could defy Tartara and get away with it, she wouldn’t stop him. Not if it’d get her the name she’d wanted since she’d reached her prime. She wanted to know what type of man her father was. And if he’d known she even existed. She had so many questions. Only one name might give her the answers she sought.

Give me the name, and my blood is yours.

The ugly demon jumped from foot to foot, the mouth in his bulging stomach opening and closing, causing his long, sharp teeth to clack together. Ziralel narrowed her eyes at him, and the name left the lips of the mouth on his head.

Theodore Lovell. Born and died in a place called London.

She couldn’t keep herself from grinning. She knew her father would be dead. Her mother had met him at least one hundred years ago, and humans lived short, fleeting lives. But she had her mortal family’s name.

Lovell.

She could work with that.

Urlak opened his giant mouth as she sliced her palm open with her black claw.

She waited until blood pooled, red like glistening liquid rubies, and then she tipped her hand above his mouth and watched her blood drip onto his long, purple tongue.

The demon bounded away, in a rush to try out his human disguise.

She wondered how long it’d be until her mother found out about his betrayal. Both of their betrayals. She wasn’t worried for herself, though. The demon queen needed her. And soon, she’d be far, far away from Orcus.

She dressed herself in mortal clothing, a long-sleeved black dress with lace, and hid her slim dagger inside her knee-high boot before stealing away to the gate that would take her to the surface.

Chapter 2

Elias bared his teeth as Ama slammed his wrists down, one on each side of his head, as she took her pleasure from him.

Her hips crashed against his like rough waves on a stormy sea.

His wings ached, crushed between himself and the puffy white mattress laid out on the open balcony that overlooked the brilliant landscape of Alysium, a realm once called Olympus, now referred to as Heaven by most humans.

His vision blurred, the green of the vines melding together with the white columns around them as he let Ama sate her lustful thirst. Who was he kidding? He didn’t let the Goddess of Love and Desire do anything. She took what she wanted. No one refused his goddess, least of all he, who was created solely to serve her.

She loosened her grip enough that he could reach up and put his hands upon her golden shoulders.

She pushed his chest back down and laughed. I didn’t say you could touch me, did I?

No, he muttered quietly.

Excuse me?

No, my goddess, he tried again, louder.

She threw her head back, her gold-spun hair swaying with her rocking movements. Miraculously the thin gold crown wrapped around her head stayed in place. She never took that crown off. He sometimes wondered if it was as much a part of her as her flesh. Glistening golden flesh. From head to toe, the goddess was the color of the rays cast by the sun forever basking their world in warmth and light.

He pushed his hips up and into her, trying to get his fill.

Ama’s nails dug into his ribs. Her naked body tensed, until finally, she exploded with euphoria.

Finished with him, she pushed herself off him, taking the silky white sheet with her and wrapping it around her luscious form. She always took everything he had to give and returned nothing, leaving him feeling hollow and used. He wasn’t supposed to feel this way. He was meant only to serve. But resentment had found its way inside