The Demon Duke and I (2 page)

          If you die, all of the creatures you tried so hard to save will hide like the cowards they are,
Mihail predicted cynically.

         
Even so – you must give them a chance.

          It’s the angel in him, Mihail,
Ilie said laughingly.
You know how it is.

         
Mihail did not answer, but his rage was palpable.

          Silviu shook his head.
Mihail---

          Just choose any fucking woman,
Mihail exploded.
Any fucking woman will do as your heartkeeper – you have it in your power to give a woman anything she could ever want in this world! So give it to her and LIVE!

          No.

         
Adrijan sucked in his breath, as if the word was a punch aimed straight at his guts.

         
I will not do what my father did to my mother.

          No one spoke at Silviu’s words. He knew he was being unfair, using Magdalene’s name to force his Galeré into obedience. But he had to do what he was meant to do, and that was to save Brimstone and the rest of the kingdom at all costs.

         
We will do as you say,
Mihail said finally, and Silviu knew he was speaking for the other two as well.

         
I have always known you will, my friends. But thank you.

         
The white wolf shuddered.
This is beginning to feel too much like the Agony in Gethsemane – and it’s a fucking irony that we are all demon bastards.

         
Even Mihail cracked a smile at that.

          “Well,” Silviu said out loud, “I hate to break it to you, Ilie, but it will only get more similar as I need you all to leave so I can...think.” Silviu could not make himself say he would be “praying”. His relationship with God was best summed up with that clichéd phrase from Facebook.

         
It’s complicated.

         
And that was fucking right, considering he was the offspring of an angel raped by a demon.

         
Just remember,
Ilie said.
Judas was the one who first greeted Jesus after he prayed in Gethsemane.

         
Silviu only smiled in response, but it did not reach his eyes this time. His gaze shuttered.
I have failed you, Mother. I am sorry.
When Silviu opened them again, Mihail and Adrijan were down on one knee while Ilie had his head bowed.

         
We will serve you until the day we die, Your Grace,
Mihail said simply.

         
And then they were gone, leaving Silviu alone, as he was destined to be when faced with his death.

          For a long moment, Silviu remained standing there, lost in his own memories. He cut a tall and proud figure with his traditional elegant clothes, his chiseled features bearing the stamp of his royal lineage.

          Yet the most arresting part of Silviu Draghici was the aura that surrounded him, invisible yet intoxicating, the rawness of his sexuality akin to a brush of heat against the skin of any woman within a one-mile radius.

          Even with the isolating sense of loneliness gripping Silviu, he remained a man who beguiled without even trying. Every inch of him was perfection – the broad shoulders, the rock-hard chest, the long and strong legs…and because he was the son of Lilu, the greatest incubus of all, a woman did not need to see Silviu naked to be aroused. Just one blazingly hot look from his eyes could easily rival the pleasure she would derive from another man’s cock. Just one fucking look…and she would come, and come, and come.

          A neighing sound made Silviu look up, and the heaviness inside him eased a little as his trusted steed came close. “One final run, eh?”

The horse nodded its head. As one of the last living descendants of Pegasus, Granite possessed not only wings concealed within his shiny coat but also the ability to bond with chosen beings.

          Once Silviu was on his back, Granite ran, his thundering hooves scattering pebbles in his wake. They traveled with blindingly fast speed, turning demon duke and horse into a shadowy blur as they half-flew, half-galloped through the Woods of the Wraiths.

Granite slowed down upon reaching its borders on the west, the inhospitable towering cliffs overlooking the sprawling city of Brimstone. Normally filling his heart with a deep-seated joy, the sight sharpened Silviu’s loneliness.

Sensing his master’s mood, Granite moved tensely underneath Silviu, nostrils flaring.

“Easy, boy,” Silviu murmured, stroking Granite’s flanks before pulling the reins back so that the horse would retreat a safe distance from the cliff.

He told Granite quietly, “Let’s go home.” Silviu had to say his farewells to his other subjects, however painful it may be. And the kingdom had to be protected at all costs, which required Silviu to name an heir before he surrendered to the Light.

As Granite turned towards the secret path leading to Silviu’s castle, the unexpected cracking of broken twigs whispered to Silviu, forcing both duke and horse to become still.

“Fuck.
” The word, coming out quite crisp, was spoken by a distinctly feminine voice.

One noble brow shot up, Silviu unable to believe that within the Woods of the Wraiths, a place most otherworlders dared not venture into at this time of the night, a
human girl
walked alone.

Did this girl know she was past the safe borders? Humans were meat here. Silviu’s subjects were predators at heart. They would tear this girl apart limb by limb at the sound of her approach, feasting on her flesh and gnawing on her bones until there was nothing left for her family to mourn.

“
Dammit
.”

As the girl continued to throw out invectives, Silviu inhaled deeply, needing to know more about her. Her scent came to him, fearless, untamed, and utterly innocent
.
The scent was immensely tantalizing to his kind, whetting Silviu’s appetite. For so long his desires for the flesh had slumbered, the responsibilities weighing on his shoulders burying them deep.

The scent lingered. Lust struck. Silviu shuddered.

I guess I deserve one last good fuck before I die.

And it would be a very good fuck, for the scent calling out to Silviu was so sweet it could only be from the most nubile of virgins, one whose fiery passions could only be coaxed to burn by the right man.

          Most times, Silviu did not care to be Lilu’s son. Tonight, he would use it to his advantage, intent on fucking this sweet temptation to within an inch of her sanity. He would take her, over and over, until Silviu’s name became the only word she could utter.

The girl was speaking again. His eyes widened. Was he truly hearing…?

Silviu’s head cocked to the side as he focused his senses on the girl-woman – she seemed like it, someone who was of the right age but whose innocence made her smell and feel so much younger. 

She was still miles away, but she was also making good time. She was halfway into the woods now, unknowingly treading on increasingly thinner ice the deeper she lost herself in this part of Chalys.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Ah, so he had heard right.

“Shitty…damn…luck!”

She truly was not yet done cursing.

Silviu’s lips curved into a smile, the wickedness of it like the most forbidden of caresses. This girl-woman had the dirtiest mouth he had ever encountered – a trait Silviu usually disliked in his women, but with her it was fucking sexy, incomprehensibly so.

“Goddamn shitty…”
Click. Click. Click.

The sound slashed the smile out of him.

“Why won’t you work?” Presumably, the girl was talking to her camera.
Her camera
– which was one of the things all visitors were expressly forbidden to bring into his city.

Each clicking sound chilled Silviu’s blood further, killing the heat of his lust. His incubus side retreated, leaving the cold-blooded angel in control. Now, Silviu did not view her as a desirable woman. Now, he simply saw the human as a possible threat to the safety of his city and his subjects.

Silviu leapt from his horse’s back, landing gracefully on the ground without a sound. At his nod, Granite followed his lead and emulated Silviu’s silent, stealthy footsteps.

As the distance between him and the human diminished, her curses also became more colorful. It seemed as if she was still trying to make her camera work, judging by the repeated clicking sounds of her camera’s button.

You will pay for this, naughty, naughty girl.

The wind howled as Silviu came nearer. The tall swaying trees bent closer towards the human, a sign of curiosity from the wraiths living within the trunks. The leaves rustled - a ploy to mask their whispers and murmurs. Silviu’s curiosity intensified. Why were they not striking her down? Their bloody history had made them feral and distrustful by nature. More often than not, humans who foolishly entered the woods were never to be seen again.

But this human---

“I don’t understand you.”

Silviu shook his head as he unsheathed his sword from his back, the weapon an intrinsic part of his body. This girl was amusing – uniquely so - with the way she constantly talked to inanimate objects. It would be a pity if he had to kill her.

“Is it because I’ve neglected you for years? Is that it? You were jealous and now it’s payback time?”

The words made Silviu’s shoulders rock with mirth even as he sliced the air with his sword, flicking his wrist left and right. It was rare for a human to make him laugh, but this one did effortlessly without even knowing it. If she was indeed a threat, he would be merciful and kill her quickly.

“Look at the damn moon. I’m begging you. Don’t you want to capture it? Don’t you?”

Silviu positioned himself behind the last cluster of trees, his grip tightening around the hilt of his sword. Here, his vision of her was limited to the splinters of space between the intersecting leaves of drooping branches. Even so, it was more than enough. This close, he could kill her with one swift strike.

The girl sighed, and she turned in his direction.

Silviu whitened, his heart shuddering to a stop. Slowly, his arm lowered to his side, the tip of his sword pricking the ground.

It was
her
.

So many different places Silviu had roamed in the last century of this millennia, so many moments he had wasted wooing women from every race – demon, angel, vampire, shapeshifter – he had dwelled among
all
of them, hoping against hope the Heavens would grant his wish.

Yet no matter where or how hard Silviu had looked, his soul had remained untouched, not one woman of the thousands who had experienced ecstasy in his arms able to make Silviu’s heart clench in recognition of a potential mate---

Until now.

Until this human.

So many fucking years
, Silviu thought, his lean hard body trembling in relief. No fucking wonder he had not found his heartkeeper in his travels – how could it be so when she had found her way to him on her own?