Free Desert of the Damned by Kathy Kulig Page A

demoness knew of his fear of heights, which could only mean her disappointment. Unless her lover, Tarik, was responsible for his abrupt appearance into Anartia.
    Slowly he reached for the nebula stone pendant around his neck. It was gone!
    He glanced down to the jagged rocks below and bile crept up to his throat. Without his pendant, if he fell…
    He didn’t dare turn around. One slip on the loose stones and he’d be an unrecognizable mess, chum for the fish, as the tide took his broken remains out to sea.
    In Gwyllain’s world, immortality would end if he died a mortal’s death. Move. Take one step back and the rest will be easy. But Dante couldn’t force himself to move.
    Gwyllain and Tarik’s affair was discovered by her jealous husband—the Ruler, called Cragen. Cragen sought a unique punishment for such betrayal. Tarik was the 45
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    ruler’s lead engineer who was designing an alternative universe—something small about the size of a large island where he and Gwyllain could meet for their secret affair.
    Cragen had another engineer finish the design so that the secret hideaway became the lovers’ prison and an eternal exile. His wife and her lover were bound to this exile, having to maintain the stability of the artificial universe with acquired life energy transferred through sexual encounters—frequent sexual encounters.
    Immortality was a gift that Gwyllain had given Dante but although he could live on Earth for long cycles, he was as much a prisoner to this exile world as Tarik and Gwyllain.
    Glancing around at the once-beautiful island world surrounded by a calm sea, Dante frowned at Anartia’s awful state. The sky roiled with violent storm clouds and the wind assaulted his naked body so hard his skin stung and his eyes watered. Of course Gwyllain would summon him here, naked and vulnerable. It was her way of exerting her domination, her control and if she felt it was deserved, a little punishment.
    His instincts told him he was in for some behavioral modification.
    With great effort he avoided looking at the ocean below. Hell, he hated heights and hated that she had such control to yank him out of the Earth plane into her fragmented dimension. How was he supposed to supply her with the chi energy that she craved and needed to maintain her world when she pulled tricks like this?
    He breathed in the damp, salt air, wishing he was back in his desert, his domain.
    What was Amy thinking of him right now after he left abruptly in the middle of their rendezvous? Despite his technique for clearing her short-term memory, he wondered if he’d rushed and if she could remember anything.
    Before Gwyllain arrived, he was going to get off this cliff. He twisted slightly, forcing himself to step back a fraction of inch, but the stones slid beneath his bare feet.
    Move, damn it. He swallowed but it felt like he was trying to force down a walnut.
    Carefully, he shuffled his feet back a few small steps. The gravel rolled down the incline and disappeared over the edge. Images of his body tumbling over the cliff flashed in his mind. He forced himself to look at the horizon and not at the crashing waves. Then a hand gripped the back of his neck. His sphincter tightened.
    “Don’t you like the view?” Gwyllain asked. Her shrill laughter pissed him off. He bit off a retort. She wouldn’t push him over this edge, would she?
    “I liked the view of where I was a few moments ago. The chi draw was high on this subject, would’ve been, except my fucking was interrupted.” She tightened the pressure on his neck and shoved him closer toward the edge. Stupid move. Don’t piss off the demoness while standing on a cliff.
    Still holding him with one hand, she dangled his nebula stone necklace in front of his face. “Looking for this?” She laughed a wild, evil laugh.
    “What am I supposed to do without it?” Dante tried to keep his voice level and without an edge of anger. Show her anger and Gwyllain knew how to