He whispered against my skin, tilting my head up with a hand beneath my jaw, on my neck, “It doesn’t bother me that you don’t trust me. I’m a demon, Shay. You’re not supposed to trust me, but you should love me. It would bother me if you didn’t love me.” Then he licked my neck, lingering at the corner of my mouth and sweeping in, taking everything from me as he savored the kiss. “But I know you love me. You love me so much that you can’t handle it. You’re terrified of what you feel for me and that’s why you’re scared about not trusting me. You belong to me, and you know it. A part of you has already succumbed to me. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting us.” His hand smoothed down my arm and curved around my waist, pulling me closer against him. Then he lifted one of my legs so it entwined around his, positioning him, ready for entry. Our clothes were the only barrier stopping him from entering me.
One of his hands gripped my neck, lifting my chin again, and his eyes watched me all the while. Peering inside of me, judging, waiting.
“What do you want?”
He smirked. “What do you think? I want you, all of you.”
My hands were helpless as they clung to his arms, holding myself upward. “Why? You knew about my family. You kept me from them. Why would you do that?”
His thumb inched upward and dipped into my mouth, hooking on the inside of my lip. His smirk looked almost cruel. “Why do you think? You’re mine, Shay. If I handed you over to your family before you knew this, what would you have done? You would’ve left me.”
“What are you saying?” My eyes glazed over, feeling him between my legs. He wanted to pierce me, shifting even harder against me, into me. I felt my desire there and knew my wetness had soaked my clothes. I wondered if he could smell it. I did. It was intoxicating and embarrassing at the same time. I bit my lip, wishing my body wouldn’t betray me while it did anyway.
“I’ve known about your mother and your aunt since I became old enough to look for them. It’s been a few years,
only
a few years, but I couldn’t risk losing you. Paint me the bad guy for that, I don’t care. I still wasn’t willing to gamble you and throw the dice. I brought you to them when it was safe for me. You would’ve done the same.”
I frowned, wondering what he meant, but his eyes snapped to the right. His body stiffened, and he dropped his hands from me, stepping back. I fell against the counter and would’ve fallen to the floor if he hadn’t caught me with one hand. He whispered in my head, “
Something’s coming. Demons. They’re not friendly.”
Then he flung me behind him and sent two bursts of black energy at the doorframe. Two dark figures flew in, but immediately were flung backward. They ripped through the house and into the trees outside. Another black figure soared at us from above and something came over me. My head snapped back, all the way back, and my eyes shifted into yellow. I saw the demon and became furious. Yellow energy emanated from me and shot upward, slamming it away from us.
Kellan leapt after the other two and lifted his hand, catching both of them in a paralyzing grip. They floated in the air, helpless to move or fight back, as he drew them to us.
The third demon was coming back. I felt its approach and then flung my own hand outward, palm extended in the air, and I caught the demon in my grip, too. I had no idea how I was doing it, but I was angry. How dare they try to attack us? How dare they think about hurting us? My fury knew no bounds, and I was ready to tear the demon apart. I wanted to torture him one breath after another. I wanted him to hurt. He intended to hurt us. Then Kellan spoke in my ear, “Don’t kill him. Not yet. We need to find out what they know, why they came here for us.”
I growled, “I don’t care.” And I flexed my hand, bending the demon in half and it screamed. The agony that came from its mouth was genuine and blinding. I smiled, bending it even more, until I felt him ripped from my hold.
Kellan glared at me, flinging one of his demons away. It hit a tree that caught it and used both sides of its branches to tear the demon in half. It turned to dust and fell to the ground. A wind then swept it up and flung it away from us, far away. Kellan took the demon I had broken, still hanging together by a piece and rested him on the table before us. It was quivering in pain, writhing in motion, but the sound was the worst. It was a high-pitched whimper, sniffling. I wanted to silence it then and there, but Kellan clamped a hand on me, stopping me as he floated the other one to sit at the table in front of us. Its leader was still thrashing back and forth on top of the table, but this one stared at us in terror. His eyes were wide, white saucers with nothing in the middle. The entire figure was cloaked in a black robe.
“They’re from the underworld,” Kellan spoke in my ear, holding me back. He wanted me behind him, and he spoke in my head,
“Remain quiet. They get information from you the more you speak. They can see into your words. Don’t do anything. Trust me.”
I trusted him, but I wanted to hurt them more. A thirst for their pain had been awakened in me. It was nearly intoxicating, threatening to take over, but I closed my eyes and battled for control. Kellan was right. He’d get the information we needed: why they were sent to us, who sent them, and what they wanted. Killing them wouldn’t help us in the long run, but I wanted to. I wanted to so badly.
He stalked toward them, growing before my eyes. I shrunk behind him, but Kellan took on a menacing stance. A black cloak seemed to shimmer over him, covering him before my eyes, and then I heard him speak in a different language. It sent chills down my back, and I gritted my teeth, fighting myself from lashing out. I wanted to stop the words that he spoke. I didn’t know what he said, but I wanted them to go away. I wanted it all to go away. I couldn’t stand the stench of the demons in the sanctuary’s kitchen. I cringed hearing Kellan speak to them in their own language, and I loathed the reminder that he was one of them, more powerful than they were even.
After a few moments of them fighting him, straining not to answer him, and Kellan striking them with his power, one buckled. The demon couldn’t stop babbling. The words poured out of him as he doubled over, crying, whimpering, begging. It sickened me. The entire thing made me nauseated and I bolted from the room, dashing upstairs to my bathroom. Within moments, I burst through the door and emptied my stomach’s contents into the toilet. I hurled a few more times until something exploded beneath me, under the floorboards, where the kitchen was. Immediately, I felt relief and knew that Kellan had vanquished both demons. Their presence no longer haunted me, overwhelming me with sickness. It wasn’t long before he came to the bathroom door and stood there. “Are you okay?”
I nodded and wiped some vomit from my mouth. “I’m fine.” I collapsed against the wall and sat there with my knees raised before me, my arms dangling from them, feeling lifeless.
“Your reaction was from her. You know that, right?” He sounded cautious, reserved from me.
My stomach twisted again, feeling how he watched his words with me. It was like he was scared of me, hesitant of my reaction. I closed my eyes, pain stabbing my gut at his reaction, but I choked out, “I know.” And I did. My hatred had been tenfold since I had merged with her. Only an idiot wouldn’t have known where it had come from, but another feeling took over me. What was I supposed to do about that? I was a hybrid, half-messenger. And that side was more powerful now within me. Some of these emotions were bound to come out, right…
“I know you can’t help it.” Kellan put me at ease, sitting next to me and then reaching for my hand. “I just don’t want you to ever loathe me. That’s all I worry about.”
I was relieved. I could do that. Hell, loathing was the opposite of what I felt for him. Then I grinned, resting my head against his shoulder. “That’s the last thing you need to worry about with me.” I squeezed his hand for extra reassurance.
“I have something to tell you, something that you’re not going to like.”
My stomach twisted again, curled into a ball once more. I forced myself to ask, breathing out, “What is it?” But my teeth gritted together. I wasn’t going to like it.
“They took your aunt. They have her, and they sent them after us. They wanted to take us too.”
I closed my eyes, feeling a ball of fury roll over on itself inside of me. Something started to take over me… Then I grated out, “Tell me that you found out where they’re holding her.”
“I did. I know.” He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. I felt his hesitation as if it were my own. And I hated it.
“Well?” I snapped out.
Kellan sighed, his hand now lax in mine. “I’ll take you there.”
“Fine.” I scrambled to my feet, ready for war, but I asked first, “Who took her? Who sent them after us?”
Kellan hesitated before answering. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t say.”
He was lying. I felt it. I knew it. I could taste it, but I held my tongue. This wasn’t the time or the place to demand answers from him. All I cared about was getting my aunt back. Kellan would tell me. I would make sure of that, but he could wait. That was fine, but he
would
tell me. As I watched him leave the bathroom, my eyes stuck to his back, feeling his lie within me. It was a betrayal, but there was more in me, a sense of determination.
I followed behind, and I couldn’t squash the hope inside that there would be more demons to kill. It was becoming a favorite hobby of mine. The thirst was almost too powerful for my liking, but I couldn’t stop the desire. It throbbed inside of me, almost as much as my desire for him, but of that, I held my tongue. I was sure we’d finish what he had promised to start in the kitchen. When that moment happened, I could only hope I wouldn’t end up begging at his mercy, but something told me that was what Kellan wanted. It seemed up his alley, and I couldn’t stop the shiver of excitement in me.
“You coming?” He came to the doorway, dressed in black clothes that were tight on him. My eyes wandered over him, unable to stop myself. Each abdominal muscle was outlined by the material, tucked inside his pants that showed how trim his waist was. Then he bent and grabbed my hand. He lifted me over his shoulder, and my hand fell out, feeling how his skin shifted over his muscles there, each rippling as he moved me back inside the bedroom and then placed me onto the bed.
Need throbbed inside of me, for him and for vengeance. I couldn’t battle both of them, so I let him see the hunger in me when he dropped some clothes onto my lap.
He stopped, frozen, and I felt his desire explode inside of him. Then he retreated, battling his primal side back down. His voice came out strangled. “We can’t. Let’s go. We have to get your aunt now, before it’s too late.”
“What will happen?” I scrambled into my clothes, trying not to dwell on my disappointment. How could I even think about my desire in that moment? Aumae could already be dead or worse.
“They could go back to the underworld. She can’t go there. The mere entrance will be enough torture for her. They’re still here, but not for long. They’re waiting for their comrades to return with us, once they don’t, they’ll go without them.” Then he grabbed my arm and whisked us down to the car.
When we got in and Kellan started the car, I looked around with an odd feeling in my gut. “We’re…driving there?”
He bit back a smile, but gunned the engine, spitting dirt behind us. “We have to. They won’t be attuned to human transportation. They’re waiting for anything supernatural to come at them. We can get close and they won’t know we’re there.”
That made sense, but… “What about us? Don’t we give off vibes? Won’t they feel us, just being there?”
“Grab those bags. I put them in the backseat. Inside are cloaking medallions. Give them to me.”
I twisted and saw the paper bags he had brought into the kitchen. When I reached inside, I pulled out a small bag with gold coins inside. They looked the size of a quarter, but weighed what a small child might. As I dropped the bag in Kellan’s hand, I could hear whispers of an incantation, in a language that I didn’t know, but they quieted in his hands.
He brought them to his mouth and began whispering the same incantation, then as something was building in the air, his other hand grabbed mine. His fingers entwined with mine and he brought it to his mouth, kissing it as he kissed the coins in the same moment. I felt the explosion around us, the air spread out in a whoosh, but there was no difference in us. Kellan looked the same, so did I, but he’d just done something.
“What happened?”
He put the coins back and then put the paper bag behind us. “Our presence, to humans and other beings are now cloaked. No one should be able to find us until the spell ends. We can’t cloak ourselves. It has to come from the outside world for it to work.”
None of that made sense to me, but I sat back. Kellan knew what he was doing, which seemed too easy. However, I’d keep my mouth shut for now, until we got Aumae back and dealt with my father, not to mention Vespar, too.
The drive took hours, but the adrenaline was still boiling inside of me. Kellan pulled the car over on the side of a street, which seemed to be in the middle of a dense forest.
“Where are we?”
“We have to walk in. They’re in a cave, and I can already sense two of them patrolling the woods. We will have to be discreet until we can get inside and find Aumae.”
“Then what?”
“We grab her and kill everybody else.”