Cipher (Demonica Underworld #8) - Larissa Ione Page 0,55

his wings used to be.

“Did you want pain?” He really wasn’t into that, but he figured he could get some tips from Journey. That guy liked his whips and chains and nipple clamps. “And why were you expecting it? Do I scream Dom, or what?”

Her half-lidded, satiated smile stroked his masculine pride. Stroked his cock too, and it stirred. How, he had no idea. His muscles were basically soup right now.

“No, I don’t think I’m into pain, and no, you don’t scream Dom.” She wriggled onto her side, and he slid from her warm body, to his acute disappointment. “It was my first time. I just thought it would be less enjoyable. But it was really enjoyable.”

First time? He stared, unsure how to respond. Or how to feel. She’d given him something she’d held on to for over a century. Something she’d managed to safeguard while living in Sheoul, where innocence and purity were ultra-rare commodities to be selectively ruined in the most useful or evil way imaginable.

Finally, he managed a lame, “Why me? Why now?”

“It had to be you.” She reached over and twined her fingers with his. “I know, because I was ready to have sex with you in your cell and later in my flat.”

She averted her gaze, and he hated it, reached out and tilted her chin up so their eyes met. “Why now?” he repeated. “Tell me, angel.”

Strength and resolve swam in her liquid mercury eyes. “It’s because I needed it. If I’m going to fight, I need a reason to win.”

He inhaled deeply, thankful that she’d been assigned as his handler. Thankful for her. What she lacked in angelic ability she more than made up for with her brains, her fiercely protective nature, and her determination.

“We’ll win.” Reluctantly, he grabbed her pants and slid them over her feet, enjoying the intimacy of helping her dress. That small act was somehow even more personal than sex. “If Azagoth helps us escape, we can’t lose.”

“You think he’ll help after—” She broke off, biting her lip.

“After I betrayed him and got one of his kids killed?” He buttoned his own jeans as she buttoned hers. “He won’t be helping me. He’ll be using me to kill Bael.” And then he’d probably kill Cipher.

Small details.

He suppressed a groan at the ache in his back as he stood and held out a hand to her. “You ready?”

Taking his hand, Lyre nodded. “Whatever happens...thank you.”

“For what?” Needing an excuse to touch her, he tucked her tank top into her pants, letting his fingers linger on her firm rear. “I’m probably going to get you killed.”

“For reminding me that there’s more to live for than revenge.” She smiled wanly. “The downside is that now dying would suck.”

Pretty much. Holding his breath, he looked up at the sky, afraid of what he’d see.

Or wouldn’t see.

Relief nearly knocked him to his knees. There, in the gray-streaked orange sky, were the transparent characters that made up the spell codes. He didn’t want to waste the power remaining in the stems of his wings since he had no way to recharge now, but just a teeny bit couldn’t hurt. He opened himself to a trickle of power and zapped a character out of existence before replacing it a heartbeat later.

Fucking awesome. It was his power, not Asher’s.

Now he just had to survive long enough to use it.

Chapter Twenty

A dull pain throbbed in Cipher’s wing anchors as he and Lyre slipped inside the room where his poor laptop sat, all cold and alone. But his body felt revitalized, his mind refreshed.

Amazing what sex can do for a guy, huh?

It wasn’t just the sex that had him hopped up on positive energy. Ridding himself of the heavy taint of malevolence that had come with Asher’s wings had been like a weight off his shoulders. Literally.

He remembered how bereft he’d felt after losing his heavenly wings, how depressed and physically ill he’d been. But if losing his heavenly wings had dragged him down, losing the transplanted evil ones had filled him with power that had nothing to do with angelic energy.

He was, once again, his own master.

They’d also successfully gotten in and out of Bael’s armory with clean pants and a tee he’d pilfered from a guard he’d knocked out, as well as with a weapon protected by a nasty spell that would have turned them both inside out if he hadn’t been able to break it.

But beneath the bliss was a thread of fear. Not for his