rest of it because my entire awareness zeroed in on the male presence right next to me. He wasn’t touching me anymore, but he might as well have been. His energy was palpable, a tangible force that hovered so close, I expected to feel the physical touch of it any second. And that thing between us, the power that had snapped taut like a rope as soon as I’d spoken my vows, it hummed like an electric field, making the hairs on my arms rise.
“Ladies,” the demon purred, and it took all of me not to purr back, dammit. “Thank you so much for your assistance. You have truly made our night, but I’m afraid we must be going now. Big day tomorrow.”
I chanced a sideways glance at him and almost melted on the spot. He positively glowed with an inner fire, alluring, mesmerizing, his expression full of self-assured satisfaction. He exuded the quiet, confident power of a man fully in control of himself and in charge of the situation, a magnetic combination that was sure to attract any woman’s—and man’s—attention nearby.
And something about it rubbed me the wrong way.
Somewhere in the back of my head rang a warning bell, some hindbrain part of my consciousness raising the alarm.
The women virtually fawned over him as he said our goodbyes. I had the distinct impression that if he’d winked at them, he would have sent them sliding off their chairs.
“Come.” His hand pressed into my lower back, and goosebumps broke out over my arms. “Let’s go home.”
It hit me then.
That warning bell...it was the realization that the tables had turned.
Up until this point, I’d had a modicum of power. All the things I’d managed to make him do, like letting the priest go, finding someone drunk to witness, treating me with an illusion of respect, they’d only been possible because I’d had leverage. As long as I could still break the covenant and damn him and me to the consequences—consequences he wanted to avoid at all costs—I’d held a bargaining position. It hadn’t fully leveled the playing field, but it had given me some semblance of power when facing him.
That sliver of power was now gone.
He’d gotten what he wanted. I’d agreed to the marriage, and by doing so, I’d given up the only piece of leverage I’d had. He basically owned me now. He had no more incentive to treat me well, or even with an iota of civility. The covenant probably spelled out that he couldn’t kill me—probably—but other than that? He could very well be free to do whatever he wanted with me.
And given how much I’d aggravated him all night, the likelihood of me ending up roasting above a pit of hellfire for the next hundred years now loomed over me in stark contrast to the bravado I’d sported earlier.
Shit, shit, shit.
I knew one day my mouth would get me in trouble. Of course, I’d thought it would be the kind of trouble like saying the wrong thing to a cop during a traffic stop or something. Not putting me at the mercy of a demon with a cruel glint in his eye.
I hadn’t noticed how we’d walked away from the bar, had rounded the corner into a smaller street. Out of sight of the bar’s patrons and the occasional passerby on the larger street, the demon let his hand fall away from my lower back and turned to me.
I would not squeak. I would not squeak.
Not meeting his gaze, I shifted on my feet. His energy vibrated over my skin, pulled on the thing between us. My breath seemed to echo in the narrow street, the night far too quiet for a city this large.
A rustling sound startled me a second before my eyes caught the explosion of flame-licked feathers in my periphery.
I squeaked and darted back.
The demon’s wings rose behind his back, caressed by fire, a thing of primal beauty. He spread them once, the tips almost brushing the buildings’ walls on either side, and then shook them before resting them in a half-folded position.
He closed the distance to me, grabbed my waist when I wanted to scoot away again. “Hold on.”
“What?”
“Do you want to be a human pancake?”
I stared at him in confusion.
“That’s what will happen if you let go.”
With those words, he stepped even closer and hefted me up with one arm under my knees, the other around my back. Instinctively, I slung my arms around his neck, my heart pounding.
I had a